


Go ahead and underestimate me, I dare you

by Jane271



Series: Black Phoenix [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Bad Parenting Skills All Around, Blood and Gore in Later Chapters, Child Neglect, Forced Femininity, Multi, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Original Male Character(s) - Freeform, Though Character Doesn't Care, Wrong Boy-Who-Lived, misunderstood character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 23:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10707720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jane271/pseuds/Jane271
Summary: After the events of October 31st, the elder Potters take it to themselves to make the best out of their children. While Charlie, the supposed boy-who-lived is trained by various witches and wizards, his twin sister Jennifer is forced to learn how to be the perfect girl, and later woman.Her parents having the best in mind for her, forbid her from training with her brother and force femininity on her, not allowing her to be her true self, and wanting her to stay away from violence as much as possible.Jennifer doesn’t agree and trains herself in secret, leaving her parents thinking she gave up, while in reality that is about as far off from the truth as possible.If only they knew what they started.





	1. Prelog

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone,
> 
> This is the first fanfic that I've ever posted, so please feel free to leave pointers to what I can improve on. Also, my first language isn't English, so if there are and spellig or grammar mistakes, please let me know so I can correct them.
> 
> Disclamer: I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.
> 
> I hope you enjoy, and now on to the story!

It was quiet in Godric’s Hallow on the 31st of october. The elder Potters had gone to an Order meeting and had left their twins, Charles and Jennifer, with their friend Peter Pettigrew. Little did they know, this night would change everything.

As the night fell, and the Potters left for the meeting, Peter quickly alerted his master that he was now alone with the potential prophecy children. As Voldemort entered the nursery, he looked at the children. Not caring whom he killed first, he raised his wand at the closest child, the girl, and spoke the words that had ended many great witches and wizards before this moment.

"Avada Kedavra!"

As the curse raced towards the child, there was seemingly no hope for her, as Peter was cowering down the hall, and there was no one else to save them. Suddenly, only a fraction of a second before the cures would hit the child, a brilliant green colored shield formed around the child. The curse hit the shield, and there was an explosion.

The Potters were in the Order meeting when the wards alerted them someone unknown had entered their home. As fast as they could the Potters were at the apparition point, apparating right in front of their home, and ran up to the doorway.

Fearing the worst, Lily and James entered the building and went immediately to the nursery, hoping beyond all hope that their children were unharmed. As they reached the door, a soft wailing could be heard coming from the room. The Potters looked at the devastation that used to be the nursery. Once perfectly painted, with toys laying around and two cribs, now a part of the ceiling had collapsed on one of the cribs, scorch marks on the walls and a half-burnt black robe laying on the floor.

Lily and James wasted no time to get Charlie out of his crib after removing the collapsed ceiling from the crib so that they could reach him. He was relatively unharmed, nothing more than a small cut on his forehead, in the form of a V. As James was trying to calm Charlie, Lily went over to the other crib, where little Jennifer was laying, completely unharmed and sleeping soundly.

After that night nothing was the same. The Potters were overjoyed that their children were alive and unharmed. All over the magical world one name was praised like a gift from Lady Magic herself.

"May more fortunate times come our way! Let’s raise our glasses for our Chosen One, Charles James Potter, the boy who lived!"

Oh dear.


	2. The Start of a Legend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclamer: I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

July 31st  2002

5 y/o

July 31st  is a dag that is celebrated all over the magical world. There were parties happening everywhere at the moment. Why you ask? Well today was the day that their young boy savior was born, exactly 5 years ago. But that was not all that was being celebrated. No, after little Charlies fifth birthday his training would finally begin. Even if it was just a bit of basic magical theory, the magical world was excited about it, and, of course, relieved that their young savior was going to be trained to keep them all safe.

The Potters were currently getting ready for the kids party for both their children, while tonight there would be a party at the ministry for their chosen one.

While Charlie would begin his training, Jennifer would be sent to a public school, for Lily had no time to teach both her children at once. And this, Jennifer was not happy with.

"But mommy, why can’t I learn how to fight to? As the twin of Charlie wouldn’t the bad men come after me to?" Little Jennifer asked her mother, a bit confused and hurt she couldn’t learn the same things as her brother.

"Jennifer we talked about this, you will never have to know how to defend yourself, you will have us, and later your brother to protect you. Besides, learning to fight will probably ruin your perfect angelic posture, and we wouldn’t want to disappoint the boys in the future now, would we?" Lily answered her daughter, while looking at James for any protest he might have on the subject. He didn’t show any.

"But mom-"

"No means no Jenny, now, hurry up otherwise we are going to be late to the party. The first guests will be arriving shortly."

Defeated Jennifer looked at her pure, white sandals that matched her frilly white dress perfectly. Her hair was done up in a small knot and what wasn’t in the knot was curled with a spell. She had a small butterfly clip in her hair to top the look off. Her mother was right, she looked angelic, but it wasn’t something that she would ever pick for herself. No, she gave her brother a jealous look, for he was wearing a pair comfortable jeans and a white button-up shirt, with a dark blue vest over it. She always hated wearing dresses.

"Now don’t make that face little flower." James commented, seeing the look on her face. "This is going to be fun."

``````````````````````

He lied.

This was the dumbest party she had ever been to.

All the adults either ignored her outright even though it was her birthday as well, or they treated her like she was a baby.

While this was disappointing, even more disappointing were her presents. While her brother got potions sets, books of all kinds and even a telescope, she got dolls, make-up and a few pieces of jewelry that she didn’t want to wear. It was the biggest disappointment of the night.

Seeing her brother running around having fun, and getting very dirty with all kinds of things sent her another spike of jealousy for her brother. She tried to play with them too, but her parents were quick to intervene with it, because ‘’We wouldn’t want you to ruin you pretty dress now, would we?’’. She was getting to the point of ripping her hair out, which was getting even more attractive when Charlie unpacked a chessboard, but she refrained.

As always she had to behave worthy of her family, whilst her brother got to do everything he wanted.

Suddenly all she felt was anger.

Why wasn’t she allowed to do things like her brother? She asked her parents not long ago, all they would say was that it wasn’t proper for a young lady to behave in such a way. That girls couldn’t do these things. That she shouldn’t spent the day reading or doing math, no she should be interested in dolls, or the new dresses her parents got her.

She snorted. The day she would actually like that would be the day she got brain damaged.

She told her parents time on time that she wanted to be an auror when she was grown, that she didn’t like dresses or dolls. That she didn’t want to be treated differently from her brother just because she is a girl.

They didn’t care about what she wanted. They made that very clear when they took away her books on math and threw away all her clothes that she felt comfortable in, namely all her pants and dark colored clothes. To make space for her new clothes, they told her.

Jennifer huffed, giving the party one last glance before going inside to her room. In her room she had a few things that she had managed to hide before her parets took it to themselves to ‘replace’ her clothes and toys. Under a lose board under her bed, she took out  few race cars the size of her palm, a black t-shirt, a lose pair of jeans that belonged to her brother once upon a time, but was trown out because it had a hole in it on the knees from falling one to many times, a pair of dark brown leather boots and a big grey sports bag.

These were her greatest treasures, for they resembled who she was –still is, but no longer allowed to be- , and thinks sadly about how the day has gone. She felt empty, like there was nothing more to her than her looks. Like she was useless. She would never get to prove herself, her parents wouldn’t allow it.

She looks out the window to see that her brother was now attempting to sword fight with his friends using wooden swords that one of the adults at the party had probably gifted him with.

Suddenly a thought came to her, why should she need permission or someone to help her train? She could do it herself.

With a new determination Jennifer looks at herself in the mirror, and instead of what she normally sees, she imagens what she could become. Determined, stubborn, beautiful, deadly. She imagens herself standing with pride, wearing a sword on her back, dressed in black. A hood covering her face form anyone, strong legs in stiff boots. A force to beware of.

Yes.

This is what she will become.

And anyone who stands in her way, won’t know what hit them.

The next day is spent in a frenzy. The elder Potters are currently packing everything they might need for the family’s first week long trip to Hogwarts which they will be doing every 3 months until the twins will go to Hogwarts as students. Charlie and Jennifer are both very excited to go to Hogwarts.

Jennifer for there she will be able to go look for a room called the room of requirement, where she hopes to make a plan for her own training, while Charlie, well, she didn’t know, and didn’t really care why he was excited. All he’d done so far was rub it in her face that she wasn’t allowed to join in training. So, whatever.

She looks at her brother, who is sitting across from her on the breakfast table.

Just as she thinks, ' _I_ _t could have been much worse, his fame hasn’t risen that far to his head-'_   Charlie finds it necessary to say "Are you excited to go to Hogwarts? I know I am, sad that you can’t join the training though. But you don’t have to worry, I’ll save you and everyone else when it is time."

Ok so maybe it is finally starting to get to him, the constant praises over something neither of them can remember, whilst everyone is saying that one day he’ll be their savior and that he will make everything right in the world. People treat him like he can walk on water, and it annoys the hell out of Jennifer.

But that will all change one of these days. They just don’t know it yet. They will treat me just like another person, instead of a doll who can be dressed pretty and then left on her own for days at a time.

Coldly she replies, "Of course big brother, I know you will, just like everyone else."

She feels the need to wash out her mouth after saying it, especially after seeing the look on her brothers face after she said it. Idiot.

The next week was a treat to Jennifer. She found the room of requirement within two days of looking, and best off all, her parents told her that they wouldn’t have time for her that week, and to call the house elves of Hogwarts if something was wrong or if she needed anything.

The first days were the most fun she’d had in years. Upon finding the RoR, she realized that the RoR was used by many people before her, and they had used the room to hide their treasures in to keep them safe, only to leave them there and never return for them. So far she had found a telescope, five difrent kinds of couldrens, enough books to fill up at least one of her bookshelves at home, three potions sets (two beginner and one advanced), enough empty notebooks to last her at least a year, quills, ink bottles, and other mandatory stuff she could use for her training.

But there were a few item that really stood out. A 7 layer trunk, completely empty, a broom that looked good enough to safely fly on, and clothes.

The clothes were a true god-gift for her. She found 2 pairs of dragon skin boots that would shrink to the size of the wearer. A few pairs of black jeans and shirts.

But one thing, that was unreplaceable.

A wand.

She found a wand. Just sitting under a pile of junk. She never would have found it if she didn’t feel it calling out to her. Not knowing what it was a first, she took the box in her hands, and gently lifted the top off. Upon opening it she got the greatest shock of her short life. It was a wand made out of silver, with beautiful silver vines twining around the wand.

Unable to resist she took it out of the box, and got yet another shock when a rain of red sparks came out of the top, and little Jennifer was filled with a warmth and rightness that she had never experienced before.

The wand had chosen her.

_The wand had chosen her!_

That was a few days ago. Now it is the 6th day the Potters were at Hogwarts. Jennifer had taken to putting as many books as she could find in her new trunk, which was already feather light, and could shrink and unshrink itself if you touched the top in a certain place.

She was ecstatic.

Never had she thought that coming to Hogwarts would be so… freeing. With no parents around to tell her how to act, what to wear and what to do, Jennifer could make her own choices. And boy, did she love it. She was really disappointed at the thought of going home and not coming back for 3 months. But as always she would bare it with grace and not let anyone see what she really felt. If they knew, they would just ignore it, and that hurt even more as them not knowing.

But for now, she would enjoy the time she still had left.

Feeling her wand in a (quite old looking) holster that she had found in the RoR as well, she couldn’t help but smile.

The wizarding world wouldn’t know what hit it.


	3. Training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone. Yet another chapter done today.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. All right belong to J. K. Rowling.

September 2003

6 y/o

Jennifer was breathing loudly as she  proceeded with her physical training. Huffing each time as she pulled herself up on a metal pipe that was parallel to the ceiling. In her ears she had a MP3 player with a language program. The program would say a word, the translation and then give her time to repeat the word. This week she was learning Japanese, something she found way overdue for herself. She had long ago read all the books in English she could get her hands on in the mansion, and even though the RoR never lacked more books in English for her, there was simply so much more information available in other languages, but only if she could read said languages. Her options were to buy books or read them in a different language. She opted for the latter. And with learning to read a different language she immediately learned to speak it as well, for later uses she might have. After all, you can’t say you know a language if you can’t speak it.

Jennifer was inside her seven layer trunk, currently on the fifth floor, which was completely furnished for physical training.

Today she had already done her 10km run, her 2km swim, push-ups, sit-ups, flexibility training and tightrope walking. All that was left were her pull-ups.

Her parents were not home at the moment, neither was Charlie. They went to a magical core specialist in south-Africa somewhere. Apparently Charlie had been having problems producing even a small levitation charm, and they were concerned that he suffered from magical exhaustion. Or something. She didn’t really pay attention after they said ‘We will be gone for 7 days’.

That was another thing. Every time the other Potters left, leaving her behind at the manor, they gave her what she called _sorry-that-we’re-leaving-you-again-money_. Basically, it was more than enough money to make sure she had everything she needed while they were away. They never bothered to check what remained of the money when they came back from wherever they had been, leaving young Jennifer with more than enough money to buy equipment. Such as punching bags, pull-up bars, and wires to train her balance and flexibility on.

To say that her training was going well was the understatement of the year, even if she didn’t know this herself. She could do most spells, charms, jinxes, etc. from first and second year, make potions up to forth year, and had read more about history as some professors. Astronomy was also easy for her, as all she had to do was look at a few maps and she could find all the stars needed, thus losing her interest in it very fast. She had also begun reading books on healing magics.

Recently she had also taken to knife throwing, after her brother had gotten a set as a present on his birthday. As many of his things went missing, some went ‘missing’ in the term of Jennifer took it and no one knew it was her. But as her brother lost so many things, a few would go missing and no one would think twice on it even if Charlie insisted that he hadn’t lost it.

Finally done with her physical training, she let go of the metal bar and landed with a soft _Thud_ on the padded floor. Wondering what she would de next she scanned the room. There were weights she could lift, but after a moment her eyes fell on de boxing equipment. She smirked. Boxing was next.

`````````````````````

At 15:00 PM she finally thought she had trained her body enough for the day and retired to the first compartment –the library / study- for some more reading. She had been busy reading up on potions for the past 2 months or so, and was nearing the limit she could know about the theory behind brewing. It wouldn’t be long before she would continue with the practical aspect of the subject.

Up until fourth year potions the potions couldn’t really do much harm should anything go wrong with the brewing of it, bar for minor explosions or melted cauldrons. After that the chances of getting more serious injury were much more present, and therefore she was doing mostly theory and some healing magics before trying her hand at the more complicated potions. She knew for a fact that Charlie wasn’t learning potions after James and Sirius loudly proclaimed that it was the most useless subject ever and Charlie was right in refusing to learn it, but Jennifer found it necessary to know as much about everything as she could.

Her library was already overflowing with books, while not too long ago she put 3 more bookcases in the room. There were already new piles of books forming on the floor for lack of room after her last visit to Hogwarts and she knew that before her next visit in 10 weeks she would have to have at least four more, otherwise the piles would get to big.

She moves to take the three top books from a pre-made pile that are sorted per subject. Each book is about a thousand pages thick, which would take any other 6-year-olds forever to read, while Jennifer could read one page every 5 seconds. Her perfect memory allowed her to absorb reading material like it was nothing. There wasn’t a subject she hadn’t read a book or two (more likely twenty or so) about.

Due to her nature she only needed a full three hours of sleep every night to feel like she had slept enough. When her parents were home she filled her nights with reading, learning languages or listening to music. Sometimes she would practice drawing runes, but at the risk of being caught, she nearly never found this worth the risk, and mostly left all practical magic for when her parents and brother were gone. Which was about ¾ of the time.

At 19:00 PM Jennifer was finally done with her reading for the day, and made it down to the kitchen for dinner. The house elves were currently at the house her family was, so she made herself a simple sandwich with actual butter on it. Her mother never wanted her to eat a lot of fat, for fear that boys or her friends from the upper class would find her too fat once she was a teenager. Screw them. She honestly couldn’t care less what boys or her mother’s friends thought about her. It was her body after all, and seeing the six-pack she had been left with as a result of her training, she thought that her parents should mind their own business.

It really wasn’t fair, that Charlie could eat everything he wanted, for he was a ‘growing boy’ while she couldn’t eat anything with fat, carbohydrates, or sugar while she was the one that needed a lot of energy for her physical training. She always snuck down at night for a midnight snack, especially if they only gave her vegetables for dinner once more. It was getting to the point that she kept a bowl of cooked macaroni standard in her room.

But even with this she loved the way her life was. She actually felt bad for Charlie, who was getting everything handed to him on a silver platter. Later in life he would be in trouble due to not being independed whatsoever.

As she was eating her dinner, a pretty ruffled looking owl flew through the window and landed in front of her plate, pulling her from her thoughts. Looking closer the owl had a package tied to its leg. A big, flat and square one.

Jennifer couldn’t help but leave out a big smile upon seeing it. A new album! She quickly took the package from the owl, which flew away once again.

Opening the package she laughed in utter happiness. A new Skillet album, her favorite band! Quickly finishing her sandwich she ran to her room and raced down the ladder into the trunk on the fifth floor. As she spent most of her time here, and there was enough space, she had put her record player in this room. Putting the record in its place she listened to the entire album, sitting on a tightrope she used for balance practice, whilst lazily throwing a knife in the air and catching it again, sometimes throwing it at a wall, where it (most of the time) hit the target dead in the center before reaching for a new knife from a box on her left.

Extremely pleased she spent the rest of the night in there, only leaving at 3 AM for her three hours of sleep.

```````````````````````````````

Her parents coming home was something that always left Jennifer with mixed feelings. On one side, her parents were home, on the other hand, she had to put the mask of innocent and helpless little girl back in place, wear frilly brightly colored dresses and generally not talk about anything other than how amazing she found her new clothing, dolls etc. that they brought back for her from wherever they had been. She would have to abandon her dark clothing and don’t give a damn attitude on many subjects, such as fashion, or the latest gossip. But she was always, _always_ happy when they came home, no matter how little they understood her.

Anyways, they were coming home within the next two minutes, time to stop the mushing, and time to put her mask back on.


	4. The Apprentice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

August 2004

7 y/o

Jennifer was running through the woods behind her home, testing out her new boots. The runes she made on the soles of the shoes were supposed to eliminate all sounds her feet made. So far it was working. Stepping her game one up, she tracked to her obstacle course, making no noise at all. Her normal 10 mile run had been extended with her obstacle course. She had also started field running at a nearby abandoned city. The flats were perfect to practice climbing, and recently swinging.

7-year-old Jennifer was making her armor.

So far she had (hopefully) finished her boots, mask and body armor. Her gloves were still in the making and once they were done they were going to be amazing. She would have a wand holster on her right arm, on both arms on the downside a hidden blade. On the top of her gloves three retractable claws, and on the fingers cat like claws in case everything else was lost. To top it off there would be brass knuckles so that she wouldn’t have to worry about breaking her fingers on someone’s face, and the fabric it was made out of was dragon hyde, making it totally fire-proof.

Yes, she is violent. Deal with it, or fall in love with her doll mask, like her parents did.

A few months ago Jennifer let a bit of her rebellious attitude shine through to see how her parents would react. It wasn’t pleasant in the slightest. Her parents were absolutely horrified when she suggested punching a boy in the face that had been bothering her for a long time now. They actually wanted her to attend a anger management group at her school. She decided that she would never let her parents see her without her mask ever again. It only lead to trouble.

But back to her armor. All she had left to do in order to finish her gloves, was to wait for the owl ordered parts from Gringotts.

Her mask, in contrast to her entire outfit –which was completely black-  was completely white, except for where the eyes were, there was thick black glass blocking anyone from seeing her eyes, and charmed to be unbreakable and cold resistent. It was a rather simple mask that reached down to her cheekbones. The rest of her face was covered by a plain piece of black cloth, making it fully impossible to see any part of her face. She would later have to make a more permanent one as the charms would eventually wear off, but for now it would do.

Jennifer looked at her watch. She had to be back inside by 7:00 AM so that her parents wouldn’t notice her being gone. She swore in Spanish, she had to head back now or risk her parents finding an empty room. If they noticed she had been gone, she wouldn’t be allowed to go with them to Hogwarts, and that meant no dueling training in the RoR with a couple of moving opponents the room provided her with. Besides she was getting really antsy with nothing to aim at except for non-moving objects. That got boring very fast.

Running home, Jennifer climbed the way to her bedroom window with no effort at all. She had done this so many times by now it was getting mandatory.

Just as she had stripped herself of her clothing in the bathroom and turned the shower on, James came knocking on her door.

"Sweetie are you coming to breakfast?"

"I’ll be there in 15 minutes dad! Just getting ready for taking a shower!"

"All right sweetie, but don’t take too long. We leave for Hogwarts at 8:00, so if you want to eat breakfast you better hurry!"

"Ok dad!"

Jennifer listened to her father walking down the hallway, probably down to the kitchen for breakfast. She sighed, that was just a tad bit close for her liking. She looks down to see the water wash sweat and dirt down the drain while she washes herself. Her parents would never let her get dirty, but a bit of dirt on her felt more natural as the clinical cleanness she usually had that her parents demanded of her. Stepping out of the shower she dried her hair with a simple spell she had learned long ago. Once dry, she began to braid the long locks that would hang in front of her face backwards, the two endings of the braids were then tied together with a white hair tie and a butterfly hairpin pinned on it. Next came her boxers, and a white top. She then got a pair of white tights  and a white sundress. Over the dress she wore a light denim jacket and on her feet a pair of light blue boots that reached just past her ankles.

She looked in the mirror and couldn’t help the disgusted look from appearing on her face. It was just such a contrast to what she was wearing not even half an hour ago. She mournfully looked at her black ripped jeans, black muscle shirt, dark brown leather jacket and black dragon hyde boots. She already felt as though she was leaving a part of her identity behind by simply not wearing them, and in a way, she was right.

`````````````````````````

After arriving at Hogwarts Jennifer was left alone by her parents, knowing that she wouldn’t see them again until they left for home once more. This left her with 7 entire days of free time.

Not wasting any time, she immediately set course towards the RoR, hoping to get some hours of non-interrupted dueling time.

Once in the room she quickly changed her clothing back to what she was wearing that morning. After stretching she set to work.

The dueling dummy the room provided would be set to just above her skill level as to let her always have an opponent that was slightly better as her.

Most times she was the one that ended up getting disarmed, but there were times where she would win.

After just over three hours of dueling she switched to her sword training, hoping to get some of her frustrations out of her  system. There was something therapeutic to slashing at a wooden figure with a –very sharp- sword. Currently she was working on a slash that would allow her to take her opponents head off, but she was having a little trouble with it because she couldn’t put a lot of strength behind the slashes just yet.

A bit disappointed at her small failure she had the RoR change into the room filled with other students treasures. There was something specific she had been looking for, for a long time now. The problem was that the item was quite expensive, and she had spent all her money on the parts to make gloves with. Besides, this would just add to her rebellion to her parents.

Filled with hope she continued her search for the item.

````````````````````

Six days.

It took her another six days to finally find the item. Or rather the parts of one. A magical tool that was used to make magical tattoos with, such as moving or color-changing ones.

What Jennifer wanted to do was make something called an apprentice band.

She had read about the apprentice band in a very old tomb in the Hogwarts library three visits to Hogwarts ago. The band would wrap around her wand arm -thus her right arm- and all magical fields she was training in would appear on it. Each skill would take the appearance of a flower bud, and the more the skill was developed within the person carrying it, the more it would turn into a flower. Ever since reading about it she had wanted one. The band descended from before even the middle ages, and was used to show off the amount of masteries a person had. The band eventually fell out of habit for apprentices to have due to them only having one or two masteries at once, thus the band was no longer needed.

Excited Jennifer left the RoR and re-entered it so that it had shaped itself into a study. Placing the parts on a desk that had appeared she set to put the tool together. By the time she was finally done, it was already time for dinner, as her stomach reminded her. Deciding to eat first and then set to draw the outlines on her arm with special ink, Jennifer prepared  herself to make the band.

It was a very complicated design, with a lot of runes on it. Luckily Jennifer had been practicing to draw and carve runes for over two years now, so it wasn’t that bad. Add that to the fact she didn't have a hand of preference, she was able to make the outlines without much trouble.

Finally, at 10:30 PM she was ready to start the tool up and set to work on making the band.

It hurt to do, but finally, after five hours of intense concentration, the band was on her skin, or rather under it. The only thing left to do was to activate it and wait.

Once it was activated it would have to rest for four to five hours until anything would (visibly) happen. Exhausted, she went to bed and didn’t awake until lunch time the next day.

Blurredly opening her eyes, Jennifer at first was confused as to why it was so light in her room, seeing as she usually woke up at sun rise, sat up. Seeing something black catching her eyes, she looked down only to be greeted with her right arm.

The apprentice band!

The band now has different colored buds on it, a few were half way to turning into flowers, three already completely in blossom, and a few others still in the first stages of buds.

The three flowers she recognized as an orange for ancient runes, the others a dull blue for history and a white one for astronomy.

The few half-way ones were a grass green for herbology, a dark blue for sword fighting, light yellow for charms, black for potions, blood red for knife throwing, white with red for acrobatics, yellow with a purple ring on the outside for defense and purple with yellow ring on the outside for offensive magics.

The mere buds were light blue for flying, light green for occlumency, a bright orange for ligillamancy and a blue-green one for transfiguration.

Her face broke into such a wide smile one could wonder how she managed it. It had worked! She was now an apprentice, but still without a master to teach her.

_Right._

Like she needed a teacher. She did fine on her own.

Giving it one last look she casted a glamor over it, not wanting her parents to EVER find out about it. If they did, there would be hell to pay for her marking her 'perfect' skin.

But right now, she couldn’t care less. For the first time in years, she felt like she could breathe again.


	5. Through the Years

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K Rowling.

Over the next few years Jennifer fell into a pattern.

Her parents left for Charlie or work and they would leave her alone. She would start her mornings with physical training, followed with knife throwing and sword fighting. Next would be practicing new spells. Then lunch and following that dueling. Dinner followed and then reading until midnight. From midnight to 3:00 AM flying and then sleep.

It was an endless circle. Sleep, train, eat, repeat.

It only got worse when she finished muggle pre-school at age 8. Her parents didn’t know, but she was no longer going to school.

She saw no use in going to muggle high school, especially at her age. Instead she requested a library pass from the local library, which she was granted. Every week she would go there one afternoon to read and exchange her books for new ones. She leaned about math, physics, writing, art, chemistry, and all sorts of other subjects.

She was now 10 years old and extremely bored.

Now fluent in 21 languages, including French, Spanish, Japeneese, Chinese, German, both old and new Greek, and, most important of all to a witch, Latin, she really didn’t see a point in learning more languages.

Her physical training had reached its peak for now, the only thing limiting her to further train her body being her age.

Her knowlage on magical theory was about as complete as it could be, having studied all subjects that interested her, and then some.

Sneaking out was no longer a challenge either, and it had stopped being a challenge years ago. Last time her parents actually caught her was, well, never really. They just suspected it, but after so long of dodging her parents that was no longer a problem either.

She had taken to occlumency and legilimency lately, but even that wasn't enough for her to keep her from being bored to death.

There was only so much one could do by themselves. So, to battle the boredom she had recently taken to go to a nearby fight club. And with nearby she meant 20 km south. Whatever. Potato, tomato, right?

The men there had first completely ignored her, until she joined her first fight herself. That gave them a completely different impression of her. The man she fought, nearly three times her length and four times as wide as her, laid dazed on the floor where he had been put not even a minute into the fight. The girl first dodged every punch or kick he threw at her, before she lifted herself on his back and used her legs to turn his momentum against him, plomply planting him face first on the floor.

After that fiasco she became a favorite in the club, the days she fought were always the busiest. Apparently it was very amusing to see grown men get floored and / or knocked out by a 10-year-old girl. Jennifer didn’t mind. It was very refreshing to see that there were people who liked to  see the real her, even if it was just to win bets to unsuspecting newcomers.

There was once a man who called foul play. He was dared to enter the ring with her in it.

He left the club with a broken nose, cracked cheekbone and heavily wounded pride while the other men laughed at him. It left Jennifer very amused.

She thought the fighting was good practice and the money she earned for each fight she won was not bad at all, especially if she fought more as one each night. The money she earned was used to buy more weapons, she had finally saved enough money to buy herself a proper sword.

It wasn’t anything fancy, but that was the point. A simple, yet elegant design for the sword with no fancy stones of any kind, leaving it very light. After adding runes to it and making a sword holster for over her shoulder, she made it so that if the sword was placed in it and on her back, both the sword and the holder would be invisible.

She had also finished her gloves and went swinging in the abandoned town on a weekly basis. She was able to use both pairs of claws that were hidden in the gloves like a pro and ever since she learned how to apparate she went to cities at night to get familiar with the feeling of jumping from rooftop to rooftop and climbing walls with her cat-like claws.

So despite being bored she was having the time of her life.

Which was about to become even greater.

Her animangus training had gotten to the point where she was finally able to transform and hold her form for longer as an hour at the time. The multi-colored bud on her band was no longer a mere bud, but a flower that was nearly completely blossoming. She knew there was one last step to completing the training, going for a flight.

To her utter shock she discovered that she was not only a bird animagus, but she had a magical creature as an animagus form.

She is a black phoenix.

How it happened, she was not quite sure. How it was possible, she wasn’t sure either. But it happened. And she would be the biggest liar in the world if she said that her discovery didn’t leave her shocked, and later nearly screaming with joy.

Right now she was standing on top of a building in the middle of the abandoned city. It was daytime and she was wearing her dragon hyde boots and pants, both black, a black muscle shirt with an ac/dc print on it and her gloves in case she couldn’t manage to fly and had to catch herself somehow. Her hair was done in a braid as always so that is wouldn’t get in the way.

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves she changed into her phoenix form. Spreading her wings wide, she began to flap them, just like she had practiced in her trunk, surrounded by padded walls and surfaces in case she crashed.

Lifting off the building, she steadily made her way to the other building in front of her. She made it -albeit a bit wobbly- without crashing.

A few hours later she had to stop practicing for her arms – _wings!_ \- were getting really tired.

Extremely satisfied she apparated home, just outside the wards. Her parents would after all notice if someone apparated into the mansion, even if they were… uhm, somewhere in Asia? Or maybe it was Africa…

‘Whoops, should have paid better attention.’ Jennifer thought to herself a bit sheepishly. ‘It doesn’t matter as long as I remember when they are coming back.’

Which is this evening. Crap. What time is it again?

‘Oh, man I spent way to long outside. They will be back within the next hour! Better get ready then.’

She quickly stripped herself of her clothing and took a shower. She dressed herself in a way to brightly colored dress for her liking. Next she put make-up on her face in the way her mother had shown her right after her 10th birthday, saying that she was now old enough to wear it, and Jennifer had heard the pressing order in it for her. Ever since she always wore make-up when her parents saw her. Lily told her it would later give her great self-confidence.

She honestly felt like she head-butted a can of paint.

But, if it made her mother happy, then how was this any different from what she’s been doing for years now?

Looking at the time once more she cast a charm on her arm to conceal her apprentice band, which had even more buds and flowers on it in all sorts of colors.

Over the years she had mastered defensive and offensive magics, potions making, flying (on a broom), knife throwing, sword fighting, hand to hand combat, charms, aritmancy, herbology and knowledge of magical creatures.

She was now also advanced at occlumency and legilimency. Which was a good thing considering she was going to Hogwarts soon and would need to keep her knowledge hidden from anyone that might want to take a peek in her head. Such as sneaky headmasters.

Jennifer had never really liked Dumbledore much. He always treated her like a crossing between a naïve little girl and an idiot. Naturally she wanted to throw him out of a window for that. Unfortunately she couldn’t because she was an ‘innocent, weak, little girl’.

Still deep within her thoughts she put on her shoes and made her way to the garden to wait for the rest of the Potter family. She didn’t have to wait long, for only two, maybe three minutes after waiting they appeared by portkey.

She looked at the human pile that contained her father, two godfathers and her brother underneath the three, while her mother landed on her feet as usual, even if she looked a bit windswept.

‘’Urh! Get your bum out of my face uncle Siri!’’ Charlie called from the bottom of the pile of men.

‘’Sorry cub, landed a bit unfortunate.’’ Sirius said in return, not sounding sorry at all. He sounded like he was trying really hard to not laugh at Charlies’ position beneath them all.

‘’You don’t say! Unfortunate is the understatement of the year! Why did you all have to land on top of me!?’’

That did it, and everyone but Charlie burst out laughing at his misfortune.

‘’Come on! Are you going to lie there all day or am I going to get a hug?’’ Jennifer commented and spread her arms wide, as if to prove a point.

Suddenly all four men were trying to simultaneously get to their feet in order to greet their daughter/sister/niece. Which ended up with an even bigger mess of flailing limbs and indignant cries from random people in the human pile. Which sent Jennifer and Lily into another round of laughter.

Eventually everyone was on their feet and gave her a hug and kisses before they moved inside.

‘‘So cubs, you looking forward to your 11th birthday tomorrow?’’ Uncle Sirius asked the twins, already knowing the answer.

‘‘Of course! I can’t wait to go to Hogwarts as an actual student. Though I am going to miss being with you guys.’’ Charlie replied.

‘‘Oh, well, I guess so, but I’m a little worried about what house I’ll get sorted into.’’ Jennifer answered a bit shy.

‘‘Don’t worry about it sweetie, as long as it isn’t Slytherin we’ll be happy with everything!’’ James cheerfully said, earning himself a glare from his wife.

Going to Slytherin was a real concern she had, after all, it was the house of the ambitious and cunning, something she had both plenty of.

‘‘Right.’’ Now more than a little tense, she decided to cut the conversation short, and excused herself to her room, stating that she needed to go to bed to make sure she was well rested for tomorrow. Which was a lie of course, since it made no difference to her if she slept three hours or an entire day.

With a deep sigh she got ready for bed, not feeling like reading that night, and fell asleep.


	6. To Hogwarts We Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

The next day Jennifer didn’t go running or have any chance to do physical training at all. Her parents were up at 6:00 AM in case their Hogwarts letters came early. Which they, of course, didn’t. At 7:00 AM the Potter family plus extra’s sat at the breakfast table, impatiently eating. Even Jennifer couldn’t help but glance at the window every so often, in anticipation for her letter.

Breakfast had never before been so nerve wracking, even though they all knew they would both be getting their letters. It was simply a matter of when.

Nearing 8:00 AM they were all getting restless. Sirius had long given up on not complaining for it taking so long, and James looked ready to eat an entire broomstick if it made the time pass faster. Remus was trying to read the daily prophet, but he had been on the same page for the last 15 minutes. Lily had been doing the dishes by hand, but had seemingly lost her concentration on it halfway through, and washed nearly every plate at least twice or more. Charlie and Jennifer were playing chess, but Charlie hadn’t made a move in a while, leaving Jennifer even more bored.

It was when the fireplace burst out in green flames that everyone was pulled from whatever they were trying to concentrate on.

Albus Dumbledore stepped out of the fireplace. The attention was on him immediately, or, more likely, on the two letters he was holding in his right hand.

‘‘Good morning you all! I dearly hope I’m not interrupting something?’’ Albus said, looking at the people sitting in the kitchen.

‘‘Of course not Albus.’’ Lily replied to the headmaster.

‘‘Good, for I do believe that I have something for these two young ones. I know that it is tradition to get them through the mail, but I wanted to give them personally. I hope you don’t mind.’’

Without another word, Albus handed the twins their letters.

`````````````````````````````````

Going to Hogwarts was strange.

They had been going to Hogwarts since they were five years old, yet they had never been there as students.

They knew  the layout of the castle by the back of their hand, having spent so much time there as children. Yet it was still all very exciting to go there now.

Today was the first day of September, at 9:30 AM in the morning, and while normally Potter manor would be quiet at this time (James going to work, Lily and Charlie busy with his lessons and Jennifer doing whatever she felt up to),this morning it was everything but that.

‘‘Charllie have you finished packing yet?!?!’’ Lily franticly yelled up the stairs.

‘‘Almost done mom!”

‘‘Well hurry up! You haven’t eaten breakfast yet and still have to take a shower!’’

‘‘Yes mom, I know! I’m packing as fast as I can!”

Jennifer sighed.

Unlike her brother she had already packed her trunk yesterday, in order to prevent things like this from happening. Stupidly enough her brother hadn’t and now they might be late because of it.

Rolling her eyes at her brothers’ rushed response, she looked down at her skirt. It was one of the ones she didn’t mind wearing as much. A simple dark blue with two white, horizontal stripes at the top. She looked around her room to make sure she absolutely hadn’t forgotten something –she hadn’t- and dragged her feather-light trunk downstairs.

Lily was at the stove, cooking some eggs, while James sat in his chair reading the newspaper. Sirius and Remus would later join them at the station to  wave them off. Or Charlie more likely. It didn’t matter. To her, they weren’t important. Even if she acted like she thought them to be her uncles, she didn’t feel that way. If convenient she was their niece, if not she didn’t exist to them. But it didn’t matter. They were simply there for her brother, and that was fine. No hard feelings.

As Charlie finally came down the stairs, towel still in hand and half-heartedly trying to dry his hair, Lily set a plate off eggs in front of everyone and they began to eat.

``````````````````````````````````````

The goodbye at the train station was not very hard for Jennifer. She had been living pretty much on her own since she was six, her parents being gone for either work or Charlies’ training for about ¾ of her childhood.

For Charlie, James and Lily it was another matter altogether.

Charlie had always had an adult with him up until this point in his life.

Lily saw her little boy every day. James was simply not used to his son not having nearly 24/7 guarding, and was very anxious that something would happen to him.

Jennifer thought that they were overreacting. Lily was crying at this point, and it took all she had not to roll her eyes at the fuss she was making. It wasn’t like they would never see them again. But from the way they were acting, you’d almost think so.

After a lengthy goodbye –that was eventually cut off by the trains whistle going, letting the students and parents know the train was about to leave- the twins were finally, _finally_ on their way to Hogwarts.

`````````````````````````````````````

Hours later the train finally arrived at its destination.

Charlie had sat with his friends for the duration of the trip, while Jennifer sat in an empty compartment, mostly looking out the window or reading.

‘‘Firs’ years over ‘ere! Come on! Leave you trunks on the train the elves will pick them up later! Firs’ years over ‘ere!’’ They heard Hagrid yell out to the students leaving the train.

There was already a considerable amount of students standing around the large man, and not wanting to be late, Jennifer quickly made her way towards the group.

````````````````````````````````````

The first years stood nervously in the great hall, waiting for their names to be called in order to be sorted.

After a considerable amount to time, Charlie was finally called forward by professor McGonagall.

It took a mere minute before the sorting hat shouted out ‘’Griffindor!’’ making the lions go ballistic. Once they were properly calmed, albeit still clapping Charlie on his shoulder, McGonagall continued by calling out ‘’Potter, Jennifer’’.

The hall went dead silent. There were some children who looked surprised to see her there, mostly the muggleborns and half-bloods. The purebloods weren’t surprised by her appearance, after all, they had probably met her at some point during a ministry party, thus even though she didn’t appear in the papers like Charlie, at least knew of her existence.

With confidence she actually didn’t have, she walked with her shoulders and back straight, right at the chair. Only a second later the sorting hat was placed upon her head, and her view of the room was blocked.

_‘Ah, very nice meeting you, young miss Potter.’_

‘Hello there as well.’

_‘Well, let’s get straight to it then. A bravery that any Griffindor may be jealous of, yet not a sign of arrogance. An amazing drive to proof yourself, oh yes! But not for anyone but yourself I see. An great amount of intelligence, by Merlin! I haven’t come across anyone with this amount of knowledge, especially at your age, since the founders! And lastly a frightening amount of cunning, yet you do not use it to manipulate people, simply to be allowed to be who you really are. I’ll have to admit child, you would fit into any house, yet none. Never before have I encountered a child with a mind quite like yours.’_

‘Should I take that as a compliment?’ She cheekily asked the hat.

 _‘Yes child, you defiantly should,’_ the sorting hat chuckled _‘I also think we can add mischievous to the list. But now we have a problem. I do not know which house to put you in, so child, do you have a preference?’_

‘Not really, I mean, anything but Slytherin will do. But preferably either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. If I end up in Slytherin my parents will probably disown me, and then I won’t be able to protect anyone on a later date.’

_‘I see your distress child, and to be quite frank, I think that you are right in that aspect. So now the question, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?_

‘I don’t know, you’re the sorting hat, why don’t you pick that for me? They are pretty equal in my eyes, though perhaps it would be good to not be separated from my brother too much, Merlin knows in what kind of trouble he will get himself if he is left on his own without supervision from a responsible person. He’ll probably be dead by the end of the year, and that is with thinking in his favor.’

_‘I’ll have to agree with you on that as well. His mind was a mess and he was frankly to full of himself. I too fear for his well-being. Perhaps it is a good idea for you to join him in Gryffindor, child. At least then he has someone to pull him out of trouble should it be needed.’_

‘Yep, I’ve got a gut feeling that it’s going to happen quite a few times the coming years.’

_‘All right then Miss Potter, if you’re sure…’_

‘I am. Put me in Gryffindor.’

 _‘All right. Then it shall be-‘ ‘’_ Gryffindor!’’

The hat was pulled off her head and she was greeted with the sight of the Gryffindor table once again losing it. The house immensely proud that they not only had the boy-who-lived, but also his twin sister. Smiling gently she walked down to the table, where she was welcomed with claps to the shoulder and offers to sit next to people.

Eventually she sat down next to another first year Gryffindor. He was a bit pudgy and seemed to crawled into himself a bit. While he did introduce himself quite enthusiastically, he quickly calmed down again, making Jennifer like him instantly due to him being one of the few who was seemingly down to earth, while the others looked at her and her twin like they were the next coming of Merlin himself. It was rather refreshing.

The rest of the evening was spent full of laughter and Charlies’ rather outrageous stories about his time training, which Jennifer could only roll her eyes at. They were so obviously fake that it was rather hilarious yet nearly everyone spent rapt attention to his stories, eating them up.

Meanwhile Jennifer was having quiet conversation with the boy sitting next to her, who introduced himself as Neville Longbottom.

All in all, not a bad night. At least she had managed to avoid going to Slytherin, to her great relief. She truly didn’t want to think about what her parents -James especially- would have done had that happened.

Later that night Jennifer snuck out for the first time as a student. After all, she now had 24/7 access to the RoR. And to hell if she wasn’t going to use it.


	7. Firts Day of Class

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello people, I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Sorry for the long wait, it was very busy at work for the last two weeks! Anyway, let's get on with it.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

Getting up at 5:00 AM might have been early for her classmates, but as Jennifer had discovered years ago she could simply adapt her sleeping schedule within a single day. Going to bed at 2:00 AM only to get up at 5:00 AM for her physical training was nothing new for her, bar the fact that it was one hour earlier then normally.

Making sure not to wake any of her roommates, she quietly dressed and got ready for her day. She expected her classmates to awaken at 7:00 AM, so she had to be back by then. Getting caught wouldn’t do, so she cast a full disillusion charm over herself.

Because who needed an invisibility cloak anyways right?

After her run, push-ups, pullups and other exercises, Jennifer re-entered her dorm room, where her roommates were still sleeping. It was only 6:50 AM. Wanting to be the first to get a shower, she quickly grabbed her clean clothes and toiletries and entered the bathroom.

Returning 20 minutes later, she was shocked to see that they were all still sleeping. She knew that others needed a lot of sleep, but come on! They’d been sleeping for 10 hours straight.

Sighing, she began packing her books into her bag. Not knowing which subjects she would have to take with her because she hadn’t gotten her schedule yet, she simply packed all of them and cast a feather-light charm on it, silently scowling at the wand in her hand.

It wasn’t the wand she had owned for all these years, but a new one from Ollivander’s. While it was a good match for her core, it simply did _not_ feel the same as using her first wand. Unfortunately people would later be able to match her wand to her, and she couldn’t have that. Also, it would have been a bit awkward  to admit that she already had a wand to her parents, and she couldn’t explain _why_ she had it without her revealing her secret.

Therefore, new wand. Place annoyed reaction here... But she’d have to learn to live with it. It was just another small annoyance in her life. Okay, maybe a larger one. But still, she’ll get over it in a few weeks. Besides, she still kept her first wand in her robes, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have it on her should she really need it.

With a sigh, she looked at the still closed curtains around her roommates beds and decided that she might as well go to breakfast.

Quietly, she left the room.

```````````````````````````

The great hall was nearly empty, save for the teachers and a few upper years.

The Gryffindor table was vacant of all Gryffindors, bar one. A redhead she remembered had introduced himself yesterday as Percy Weasley, a Gryffindor perfect. She also noted that he was one of the older brothers’ of Charlies’ best friend, Ron. After looking around for a bit, she decided to go to him, in order to ask were everyone was.

“Oh, they a probably still sleeping, classes only start at 8:30 AM, didn’t you know?”

“Well, yes, but I had thought that at 7:30 everyone would be long up. I know I am every morning.” She answered, a bit confused as to why anyone wanted to sleep for longer as they needed. She simply saw that as a waste of time.

“Yes, but it is relatively normal to come down for breakfast about 20 minutes before classes start, especially on the day after the feast.” He reasoned. “Normally there are some more students up by now, mostly perfects, Slytherins and Ravenclaws. If you wanted someone to sit with you from your own house in the mornings, I am afraid you have gone to the wrong house.”

“Oh.” Was all she could say to that.

“You do not need to worry though, the students will probably start to arrive around 8:00 AM.”

“I see, well, looks like I’ve got some time to read my books before class then.”

Just as Percy was about to reply, a new voice commented from their sides.

“Good morning Miss Potter, up and about early are you not? And good morning to you as well, Mister Weasley.” Professor McGonagall said.

“Apparently. I’m used to getting up at 6:00, so this is actually a sleeping in day for me.” Jennifer answered, turning herself so that she was standing with her chest towards her Head of House.

“Well, since you are up already, I might as well give you give you your schedule. You first class will be transfiguration, and I am curious to see how you will do Miss Potter.”

It was rather funny that, while Jennifer could use transfiguration up to N.E.W.T.s level and above -wordlessly and in some cases wandlessly (it was handy after all to be able to transfigure knives if she ever lost her wand)- she couldn’t point this fact out. The professor had never even seen her use magic after all, unlike with her brother.

“I’m looking forward to the class, professor. And if I might add, I think I will do just fine.”

“We’ll see about that in class, Miss Potter. Mister Weasley.” With a small nod to the both of them, she retreated back to the head table.

“Well, guess I’ll have to wait for a bit then. Thanks for explaining it to me Percy.”

“No problem. If you have any other questions please feel free to come to me.”

Without another word, Jennifer sat down at the table and took out a magazine on potions, listing all new potions that had been published lately. Noting an interesting potion, she filed the name away to get the recipe on it later.

None of the teachers noticed her reading the magazine that was supposed way above her level of skill bar one. Severus Snape saw the girl reading the magazine, and immediately recognized it for what it was. He was after all subscribed to it as well. Curiously he took a closer look at the child, who seemed to absorbed by reading that she never noticed, only to scoff as he saw how fast she was going through the magazine. There was simply no way anyone could read anything that fast, especially something of that difficulty. She must simply be going through it in order to look smarter as she is, he decided.

Unknown to the professor, Jennifer was already above N.E.W.T. level with her potion brewing, and was reading everything perfectly fine, the knowledge branded into her memory forever, never to be forgotten ever again.

`````````````````````````````````````

To her utter surprise, it took indeed until 8:00 AM before the students started to stream in to the great hall, some still looking like they were half asleep. Jennifer put her magazine away quickly lest anyone ask her questions about it that she didn’t want to answer. She once again ended up sitting next to Neville, which she was fine with.

Once most students were in the hall, owls started flying in through an open widow, and flying towards the students. Jennifer received a letter from her parents stating how proud they were that she had made it into Gryffindor.

There were also students who got packages sent to them, filled with forgotten items. Jennifer solely got the letter, while her brother got a package containing all sorts of items he had forgotten to pack in his trunk before heading to Hogwarts.

Neville also got a small package, but it didn’t contain any forgotten items, but a present from his grandmother for making it into Gryffindor.

“Look! Neville’s got himself a remember ball!” A boy sitting a few chairs to the right exclaimed.

“Oh! I’ve read about those! It is said that if you forget something the mist in it turns-”

The mist suddenly turned a rose red color.

“-red…” The girl finished.

“The problem is, I can’t remember what I’ve forgotten.” Neville said sadly.

“I know what you’ve forgotten. It’s you robes.” Jennifer told Neville, who looked down at his clothes only to realize she was right.

“Oh no! You’re right! And now I don’t even have time anymore to go to the common room to go get it!” The boy was truly looking like he was panicking now and she felt a bit bad for him.

“Sorry mate, but if we want to be on time in class we better leave now.”

She looked at her wrist on her watch only to realize he was right. They should probably get going now.

As the other students left Neville looked at Jennifer.

“What am I going to do now?! I don’t want to be late nor do I want to get send out of class for not wearing a complete uniform!”

“Relax. In case you have forgotten, I’ve been exploring this castle since I was five years old. I know a secret passage that will allow us to go to the Gryffindor dormitories _and_ be in class on time. We should go now though, otherwise we will have to run for it.”

“You really know secret passages in the castle?” He was looking better, albeit a bit suspicious.

“Yep, come on, let’s go otherwise we will be late regardless of the passage.”

“Really?! Thanks so much Jay!” Neville responded enthusiastically whilst getting up from his seat.

“Jay?” She looked at him, eyebrow raised.

“Um- I – sorry I didn’t want to offend you or-”

“It’s fine. Just caught me off guard. Never had a nickname before, though I like it.” She smiled at the sheepish looking Gryffindor.

“Well, if you’re okay with it-”

“It’s fine.” She reassured him. “Let’s go though. Wouldn’t want to be late on our first day right?”

“Right.”

````````````````````````````````

Twelve minutes later both Jennifer –or Jay she thought to herself- and Neville were in the classroom, Neville _with_ his robes on now. They sat next to each other.

“Welcome class, during your time at Hogwarts you will be studying transfiguration in this class. Now, because transfiguration is a subject that is one of the most dangerous that you will learn at Hogwarts, I will not accept messing around in this class, for not being careful with these spells could cause injuries to both yourself and others. If I catch you not following my instructions or the rules in my class you will be asked to leave and not return. Do I make myself clear?”

Gulping the students replied with a “Yes Professor.”

“Good, now today we will be working on a spell that will change a match into a needle. In order to make this spell work-”

Jennifer zoned out the rest of the lecture until the end. After all, she could do this wandlessly and wordlessly. There was nothing really to it.

“Alright class now we will start on the practical part of today’s lesson. Does everyone have their match?” Getting no response, she took it as a yes. “Then you can all start, and remember, if you can’t get it during the first class that’s fine. We don’t expect you to be able to do this right away. If you need help, feel free to ask me for pointers. On you go.”

With that the class began attempting to transfigure their matches into needles. She looked around the room to see many students mess up the incarnation or wand movement, Neville included.

With a small sigh she was about to transfigure her match, when she heard, “Nicely done Mr. Potter, 10 points to Gryffindor for excellent progress on you transfiguration.” causing her to pause and look at Charlie, who was looking very smug at his match-needle hybrid. Seriously, it was a slightly pointed match with a silver-ish color to it.

_What. The. Hell._

Was he really getting that much credit for just that?

“Did you see that sis?” Charlie asked her, looking straight at her, causing most of the class to look at her. Not about to be undermined like that, she waved her wand with the right incarnation over her match, causing it to become a perfect needle, without ever leaving Charlie’s eyes.

A gasp was heard, and Jennifer had to really work to keep a smirk from forming on her face.

“Miss Potter… how did you?...” McGonagall tried to ask.

“I simply read ahead some. Or, al lot actually. There are a lot of good books on transfiguration that help with technique in the library at home.” She said with a wicked glint in her eyes as she was still looking at her brother, who was now gaping at her with his mouth open.

“Well, it is still very impressive Miss Potter! 15 points to Gryffindor for excellent initiative and a perfect transfiguration in your first class.”

The rest of the class Jennifer helped Neville with his transfiguration, and with her help he was able to complete the transfiguration as well. She liked Neville even more now, she had expected the boy to be of average intelligence, but to her big surprise he showed intelligence perhaps not on par with her own, but still far above the ordinary witch or wizard. It pleased her greatly that she might have someone that would understand her in the nearby future.

After transfiguration she went to charms, where she had a lot of fun. She loved charms to death and was always ready to learn more. She earned 10 points for a flawless demonstration of a levitation charm.

Later on was Herbology, where the professor was impressed with her foreknowledge of plants, and her ability to handle plants without needing much instruction. Plus she was the only girl who didn’t mind sticking her hands in the mud, much to the professors delight.

When the lesson was over, Jennifer made her way to the dormitories for a quick shower and a clean set of robes before setting foot to the last class of her day.

Potions.

Jennifer had always loved potions, simply because of the sheer amount of the most varied proportions much like charms, and thus was looking forward to potions class. To learn from and actual Potions Master was a dream coming true to her. Sadly she had miscalculated the fact that said Potions Master was a total prejudiced twat.

The professor burst into the room, wasting no time in getting to read out the names on his list in order to check who was present, haltering when he reached Charlie’s name on the list.

“Mr. Potter… our new celebrity.” A few Slytherins snickered at that.

“Present.” Charlie replied with a shit-eating grin.

With a death glare sent his way, Charlie slimmed down a bit. Snape continued with the list as if nothing happened.

After reading the list, the Potions Master began with his introduction to the art that is potions brewing. He stopped half-way through when he saw that her brother was not paying any attention, instead reading a magazine under the table. ‘ _Probably about quidditch.’_ She thought to herself.

After asking him several N.E.W.T. level questions, each of which he didn’t know the answer to and instead of saying so gave his professor a snarky response, he lost 20 points from Gryffindor and gained himself a detention for the coming weekend. The potions professor turned to Jennifer, who had raised her hand at every question, implicating that while her brother didn’t know the answers to his questions, she did.

“It seems that Mr. Potter’s knowledge on potions leaves a lot to be desired. I truly fail to see how a silly little girl that probably shares Mr. Potter’s intelligence would know the answers.” He sneered at her, and his words caused the Slytherins to outright laugh at her, never even giving her the chance to give the correct answers to his questions.

She seethed. “If you would look past your overly big nose, you prejudiced piss-poor excuse of a professor, I would have been perfectly able to give the correct answers. Sadly enough you aren’t, and so far this class has been a joke with you reticulating two students, one by him not knowing how to answer N.E.W.T. level questions, and now me by undermining and insulting my intelligence by not even giving me a chance to answer. It’s truly sad to see that a grown man can’t forget for even a minute that he was bullied nearly two decades ago and then takes it out on said man’s children, who also happen to be his students.” She finished.

Snape looked about ready to explode, his face turning a deep red color.

“If you even think that I will allow you to speak to me like this in my own classroom-!”

“I guess I’ll leave then, alright? This class has been a joke so far, and I’m not too keen on sitting through the entire thing.” She grabbed her books and bag off her table and the floor and made her way to the door. Before leaving she turned around and said, “Before I forget, adding powdered root of Asphodel  to an infusion of Wormwood would create an extremely powerful sleeping potion known as Draught of Living Death. You can find a Bezoar in the stomach of a goat and it purpose is to neutralize poisons either inside or outside of a person’s body. And lastly, there is no difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane, they are the same plant.” With that she left the classroom, leaving shocked students and a thoroughly pissed-off Potions Master.

One who would not admit that it was very impressive to know the answers to his questions.

```````````````````````````````````````

By the time dinner rolled around, word about her talking down her professor had gone around the entire school. Meanwhile, Jennifer was totally unaware of the immense pride her house had taken in her for standing up against the most hated and prejudiced teacher in the entire school.

When she arrived at dinner, a bit late for she got caught up in one of her books –it was on computer programming and hacking- the hall turned deadly silent.

All eyes were on her. Both the students and the teachers.

Not knowing why, she mentally shrugged and sat down next to Neville, who had saved a seat for her. The students started whispering to each other when her head of house came down.

“Miss Potter, you are to come to the headmasters office at 8:00 PM tonight to speak about your, _performance_ during your potions class.”

“I’ll be there.”

Dinner was awkward. The Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students were all continuously looking at her with some kind of worship. The Slytherins were, in contrary,  attempting to glare her to death.

After the incredibly awkward dinner she quickly excused herself and headed for the common room. Once inside, she asked what the fuzz was about, when random Gryffindors began congratulating her and stating that while the thought that she might not belong in the house of the lion, they were proven very wrong that day.

Jennifer had never before been so confused.

Eventually it was time to go to the headmasters office. What happened there, was simply hilarious.

Snape tried to make it seem like she insulted the professor first. She put an end to that not even half-way through his second sentence by asking the professor exactly what she had said to him that would be insulting before he insulted her. He, of course, had no answer to that, seeing as she hadn’t even said a single word before he spoke to her.

Next she threatened to tell the potions guild of his unacceptable behavior towards his students. That also got a nice reaction from him, having him apologize and plead with her to not do so.

She did it anyways. No way was he getting away with this type of abuse of power.

The headmaster and her Head of House looked at her with anger, yet they could not tell her she was wrong on either accord. The looks didn’t surprise her. Dumbledore never liked her that much anyways and McGonagall was to biased on Snape’s supposed innocence that she overlooked the evidence that was clearly present.

All in all, not a bad day.

```````````````````````````````````

The next few weeks passed without much trouble. Snape had been put on probation by the potion’s guild, and had to keep his head down in fear of losing his Mastery. Charlie got caught in the middle of the night sneaking around, most likely for the duel she had heard about earlier that week, the idiot.

She stayed friends with Neville, who became Nev in a few days’ time.

Then Halloween happened.

The news that a troll was wandering the school somewhere was enough to send even the upper years into chaos. The headmaster recalled the order and commanded the students to go to their common rooms, taking the teachers with him to look for the troll. 

Only there was no one but Jay who noticed a certain bushy-haired Gryffindor missing. She tried to get the attention from the teachers and perfects in order to warn them about the missing girl. She was ignored. As always.

With a sigh, she realized that the other girl could find herself deep in trouble very soon. Before dinner she had heard that the girl was crying in the one of the girl’s bathrooms.

Breaking off of the group of slightly panicking Gryffindors was stupidly easy. Once she was sure no one would see her, she ran to the bathrooms, intent on finding the other first year and getting to the rest of the Gryffindors without ever being in danger.

“Granger, you in here?” She called out.

“Go away. If you’re here to mock me some more, it’s not necessary. The others made it very clear what everyone thinks of-”

“That is not what I’m here for. We need to go! There is a troll on the loose somewhere in the school and we need to get to safety right now before something happens! So get out of that stall and get moving!” She called out to the other eleven year old, hoping to get out of the bathroom and get to safety as fast as possible.

“There’s a WHAT?!?!” Granger finally emerged from the stall, looking panicked and shocked.

“A troll! Yes! We need to go, -” Suddenly a horrible stench reached her nose, making her pause mid-sentence. Granger looked at her in horror, all color draining from her face.

“Granger?”

“Yes?” The girl whimpered, looking about ready to start crying once more.

“I need you to leave the room as quietly as you can once I distract the troll. Run to the left and lock yourself in one of the empty classrooms with the strongest spell you can manage, and keep quiet then. Can you do that for me?”

A whimper was all she got in return.

“Granger? Can you do that for me?” She asked a bit more firmly.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

At that moment the troll entered the bathroom, instantly spotting the girls. Jay ran to the other side of the room, making a lot of noise, hoping to distract the troll from the other girl. It worked.

Dodging the club swung at her, she started to wonder what the hell step two was in her plan. ‘ _Well then, it seems improvisation is step two.’_ she mushed as she dodged yet another swing, causing the club to crash into the sink to her right.

She kept dodging, seeing Granger almost at the exit of the bathroom. All she had to do was be quiet and she would be safe-

_-Crash-_

…Damnit.

The troll looked to his left, a bit behind him and spotted Granger once more. The club was swung at her and Granger was hit hard, her body thrown into the wall and her head had a small trail of blood behind it.

Seeing the troll raise its club once more to end the Gryffindor’s life, Jay made a split decision. Taking out one of her throwing knifes, she aimed for the eyes, pretty much the only part of a troll that was soft enough for the knife to do any damage.

It hit.

The troll stumbled about, in pain and confused as to why it couldn’t see from its right eye anymore. Jay took the chance to climb on its back and plunge a second knife into the trolls left eye, this one going much deeper from the angle it was used at. She stabbed it right through its brain, causing the troll to fall over, dead.

She looked over to her fellow Gryffindor, who was laying unmoving against the wall. Jay let a breath of relieve out when she saw her breathing. Going over to the fallen girl, she levitated her and took her to the infirmary. Not wanting to be kept in the infirmary, she simply left the girl laying in front of the door and knocked. She casted a disillusion charm over herself and watched as Madam Pomfey took the girl inside after frantically looking around in order to find the one who had brought the girl to her care. She would never see her though.

Jay felt quite exhausted after the fight, and decided that it would be best to call it early tonight. After all, she had made the last night a bit too long. Or should she say this morning? She hadn’t gone to sleep last night, unable to sleep with the thought of getting the last piece of her armor completed.

Her mask was probably one of the most important parts of it anyway.


	8. Christmas and Crime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> Thanks so much for the kudos and bookmarks <3 it does me well to see that people are enjoying the story! Anyway, there has been a small edit to chapter 3: The Apprentice, in the chapter there was mentioned that she had a skull-like mask. I scrapped it since I thought it didn't fit in with the rest of her armor being simple in looks. That said, let's get to the next chapter!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

The troll incident quickly became a legend amongst students. No one knew who had rescued the young Gryffindor, for her head injury had led to some memory loss for a week before the incident happened. Even the professors were at a loss at who could have saved the girl.

Inwardly Jay was smirking.

The weeks leading up to Christmas were filled with reading more books and training some more. She was at the top of each of her classes, even potions because the professor knew that if he gave even a single unfair grade he would be suspended from both Hogwarts and the Potion’s Guild.

While Jennifer was having no trouble keeping at the top of each class, Charlie had massive trouble even passing. But honestly, what did he expect? That he could just spent no time on school work yet still get good grades? Even the teachers were starting to get worried about his lack of progress during classes.

Anyways, this Christmas would be awesome. For the first time since she was five her parents would be home for the holiday, and she was excited. After all, which child didn’t want her parents with them when it was Christmas?

Then there was also the abandoned city near the mansion, not to mention the fight club. She longed to jump from roof to roof and climb the walls there. Of course the RoR could imitate it, but it wasn’t the same. Plus, it was hella fun to knock men three times her size out and have others cheer for her doing so.

In the period of Halloween to the Christmas break she learned how to fly in her animagus form perfectly. She may not have the grace of a bird yet, but she could definitely fly long distances and do so steady without crashing (like in the beginning :/ ).

Her armor was officially finished.

Black dragon hide boots. Silenced of course so that no one could hear her sneaking around. Next were ordinary black dragon hide pants and a long sleeved  dragon hide shirt. Around her waist she had a belt with a shrunk down med-kit and a bottomless bag with everything she might need if she got stranded somewhere.

Next were leather straps that went from her back over her shoulders, crossed just above her belly button and went back to her back around her hips. The leather straps were filled with rune-engraved knives, perfect for throwing. On her back she carried a big leather holster for eight more knives that were placed horizontally. Over the armor she wore a 16th century cloak, for she found the cloaks nowadays too restricting. The cloaks back in the day didn’t go all the way to the ground, they rather had two pointed ends at the back of a person’s calf with the front open (think assassin’s creed). The cloak had a hood on it, covering her hair (which she did in a braid) and part of her face.

Over her shoulder was an invisible holster for her goblin-steel sword.

Her face was covered by a piece of clack cloth up to just over her nose. The cloth was obviously spelled so that she had no problem breathing through it. Next came her mask. A bone white mask with black glass before the eyes. It covered her face up to her cheekbones, where under the eyes there were two points sticking out. With both the cloth and the mask, not a single inch of her face was visible. The mask was spelled to allow her to look out of it like there wasn’t any glass at all, while others couldn’t see her eyes at all.

The sleeves of her cloak were tucked into her gloves. Boy, did she love her gloves. They had a build-in wand holster on both arms, for she didn’t have an arm of preference and could fight as easy with right as left. On both arms on the down side there were also two retractable knives attached, perfect for close contact fighting. On her fingers there were new pair of retractable claws, for the old ones weren’t engraved with runes before. The claws that were on there now, would curse a person upon causing injury, making the area that was clawed open numb and useless to her opponent. On top of her gloves were the same three claws that she used if she needed to decelerate fast in case she fell and wasn’t able to fly, or if she needed to get through a wall or something and she lost her wand. The claws were razor sharp, and cutting through thick steel was a piece of cake with them. And, as a final touch, she added a watch to her gloves, for in the magical world it was tradition to wear a watch when becoming an adult.

When a witch or wizard became an adult, they were presented with a watch by their parents or guardians and most would never take it off. In order to not drive suspicion to her age, she decided that it would be best to add one to her armor, making the chance of being seen as an adult bigger.

At last, there was a black choker necklace with a back gem around her neck, that worked as a voice changer. It wouldn’t do to go  around with a little girl’s voice now would it? The necklace changed her voice to a deep gravelly tone, perfect for intimidation.

She was, over all, very pleased with her armor. She wondered if Charlie already had his… he had to, right? He’d been training for as long as she had, so of course he had to have armor…

`````````````````````````````````

Several hours later the train stopped at the train station, parents and students alike looking for their family. Eventually she spotted her parents, Charlie already standing by them.

“Hi mum, dad.” She spoke.

“Hi sweetie! How was your first term at Hogwarts-”

The rest of the afternoon was spent with catching up with each other. Of course, Charlie got all the attention. Jay had to nearly fight him to just get a single word in. While her parents were very interested in what Charlie had to say, Jay was mostly ignored for the night. They were impressed with his grades, even if they meant he would barely pass and fail potions, badly, while they didn’t even ask for her grades.

Eventually she gave up trying to talk with them and tuned out most of the conversation.

Until she heard “-and I can’t wait to see Paris!”

“Wait, what?”

The other Potters, Sirius and Remus –who had arrived just after dinner- looked at her.

“The trip to Paris we told you about. You know, the one that will take up most of the vacation.” James replied, looking confused.

“You will be home for Christmas, right? You promised me that this year we would celebrate it together.” She looked at her parents, who were not making eye contact with her.

“Well, you see sweetie, I know we promised but this is very important. After all, we will get to meet the Minister of France!” James exclaimed excitedly, as if that would make it all better. They were leaving her, _AGAIN_.

“You promised me! You promised that I wouldn’t be alone on Christmas this year! How could you do this?!” She was now nearly screaming at them, and they had at least the gall to look ashamed. Except Lily.

“That is not a proper way for a young lady to behave! You should be happy for us that we will get such an amazing opportunity, and not act like a spoilt little girl, Jennifer!”

She could not believe what she just said.

Spoilt, her? The only thing she was spoilt in was the fact that while her parents were away, no one was around to tell her how to live her life. They neglected her. She realized this with a pang. They were almost never home, and when they were only undermined and forced her to be someone she was not. The other times they were home, they didn’t even give her a second glance to make sure she was okay. And now this. They broke their promise, something she had been dreaming of for years now and they had the gall to call her spoilt for being angry?

They _Neglected_ her and she was spoilt? Was that even possible?

And it was normal for kids to want their _parents_ with them and not force them to be someone they were not. Parents didn’t leave their child, age of five alone in a house for weeks at a time with no one other as house elves to take care of her. Parents didn’t hurt their child by never being home or simply act like they didn’t exist. Children shouldn’t want their Christmas gift to be their parents being home for once.

She came to another startling conclusion.

She had no parents. Hadn’t had them since Charlie started training. And that hurt even more.

“Fine.” She said, defeated. She got up and went to her room where she waited until 10:30 PM for her parents to go to bed and then climbed out of the window.

That night the fight club became very busy after word got out that not only she was back in town, she had never before displayed the amount of sheer violence. Word got out and soon the club was near overrun with men looking at her fight. As the night went on, Jay never once stepped out of the ring, instead they ended up sending people into the ring without even asking her to leave it anymore. The club usually closed at 2:30 AM. This time they stayed open until 4:00 AM for the amount of people that were watching her fight. They truly loved watching her.

She found herself not minding it in the slightest.

At least they appreciated her true self. And hey, more people to punch, right?

`````````````````````````````````

The next day she came down to find a note on the table.

They were already gone. Hadn’t even said goodbye this time.

She looked at her knuckles. They were punched raw. That morning when she looked in the mirror she noticed that she also had a huge black eye from where a guy had gotten a lucky shot. They ended up having to carry him out of the ring.

Perhaps it was good they were already gone. That way she didn’t have to put up her doll-face. She was too tired to do so right now. With the club staying open a lot longer as usual she only went to bed at 4:45 this morning, that was late even for her.

She looked at the newspaper while pressing another cooling pack to her eye, hoping to down the swelling some more.

She found herself looking at the wanted section. These criminals had a bounty on their heads because the aurors couldn’t find them.

She looked at it blankly for a few moments before getting up and going to her room, taking the paper with her.

The icepack lay on the table, forgotten.

````````````````````````````````

Later that day Jay was couching on a rooftop. Her target was in the building across from hers. This was it, her first hit. The entire day she had looked at the information given by the ministry, and had been preparing ever since. Once darkness emerged, Jennifer found herself in the streets, tracking down  associates of her target, beating them to a pulp to make them talk. Eventually, hours later she managed to get a straight answer on his location. She knew he was inside with at least two guards. It was only a matter of time before-

Her target just left the building. As her information implied, he had two guards with him.

Like he was just hoping for someone to jump him, he stupidly entered a dark alleyway. Perfect.

Taking a deep breath, she jumped from the building on top of one of the guards, striking a nerve in his neck which knocked him out immediately. Her target and the other guard looked startled, both going for their wands. Before the second guard could even aim however, he was already joining the first guard on the floor. Not waiting any time, she quickly took a knife and threw it at her target, hitting him in the shoulder making it impossible for him to lift his arm, thus as well making it impossible to cast a single spell at her.

“You know, I was expecting more of a fight. This was just downright pathetic.” She commented.

“Who the hell are you?! And what gives you the right to attack me like this?!”

“The ministry does, Mr. Foyander. I have to admit, you are a hard man to find. But still, with the help of your associates you weren’t that hard to find.”

“You! You’re the one that has been attacking my men the entire night!” He suddenly looked scared, probably knowing by now just how many teeth she knocked out in order to find him.

“Indeed. And for your question, you may call me Black Phoenix.” With that said, she hit the man with a stuptify, and next bound him with chains that appeared with a flick of her wand.

Her next stop was the Ministry, where she dropped him off at the auror department. While collecting her bounty the auror’s looked at the suspiciously clad male (or so they thought). Getting more as a few nasty looks sent her way, she quickly exited the building, going straight home.

Looking at the mirror at home, she couldn’t help but smile. Tonight she had found a piece of herself she didn’t know was missing, but she would never let it go again.

What a way to celebrate Christmas right?

``````````````````````````````

The rest of her vacation involved a lot of violence, due to her realization of her home situation.  She buried her hurt and a bit of bitterness under a load of work, which was mostly taking down criminals that were way to strong of someone her age to even think of engaging in battle with. It was simply her way of dealing with it.

Plus it proved to herself that she could do however damned she pleased, James and Lily could fall in front of a truck for all she cared.

In the auror department the aurors had already started to recognize her, and they knew when she walked in to get an interrogation room ready immediately. She quickly gained respect by them. After the sixth night she was appointed an auror who would take her captive and statement of that night. His name was Kingsley Shacklebolt. She liked him, he was a good and honest man who knew exactly how to do his job both safely and efficiently.

The same could be said about her though. Not even a single time did she get hit with a spell nor did she ever get noticed before she meant them to. By day seven –or rather night seven- the criminals already knew about her and her brutal ways.

While she did avoid injuring the men and women she was after she had no second thoughts about scratching a person’s face open or curse them with a rather painful curse right between the legs if she got in a tight spot.

Yep, they panicked more than a little when she visited them, even if it was just for information. It got to the point that nearing the end of the vacation a man wet his pants at the mere sight of her.

Well… If that wasn’t a total ego boost, she didn’t know what would be.

Tonight she was after a man that had sold information to other criminals. This wouldn’t normally be a gig she would take, but there was one thing that she could not ignore. The information contained the home addresses of five auror’s, resulting in the invasions of the homes. Four aurors died while the fifth was laying in St. Mungo’s in a coma she might not wake up from. Two widows, one widower and three –possibly four- orphaned children were the results of the attacks. The coward –named Charlus Rodriguez- had taken everything he owned and made a run for it as soon as the news of what had happened came out. While he probably didn’t mean for it to happen, it did, and he needed to pay for it.

Taking him down was too easy.

He didn’t have any guards or anything. He was hidden away in an abandoned warehouse near Belfast. He was all alone, and had no idea that she was coming for him. The wards that he had placed around the warehouse weren’t even hard to break through, and when she entered the building she found the man asleep, dark bruises under his eyes indicating that he hadn’t had a good nights’ sleep in a while.

She didn’t even give him the chance to do anything before she had him petrified, which woke him up.

Eyes widening in fear when he saw just who he was dealing with. He had probably heard the stories by now about the Black Phoenix. Most of them were ridicules, overly exaggerated about her violent tendencies. She was never unnecessary violent, she only used it if they didn’t surrender. She wasn’t in a mood to fight tonight too, immediately immobilizing her target in order to not even give him a chance to fight back.

She slowly walked over to him making not even a single noise. She must look a lot like a predator eyeing its next meal, she thought to herself.

“Mister Rodriguez, you are under arrest. The rest will be explained to you at the Ministry, as I don’t feel like talking tonight.”

Without another word she lifted him and apparated to the Ministry.

``````````````````````````````

Arriving at the auror department always caused all heads to turn to her, even if it was just for a moment. They stared at her and her captive for the night.

She went up to the counter and asked for Kingsley Shacklebolt. It only took a minute for him to show up.

“Caught another one, have you? Come along.”

Fifteen minutes later she had made her statement –a short one tonight as there was no fight- and was ready to leave when the head auror suddenly came in, standing in her way to the door.

“Mr. Phoenix, if I may have a few minutes of your time, it would be greatly appreciated.” He said, with a greedy grin on his face.

“Talk.” Was all she answered, her voice laced with annoyance.

“Well, I must say it is a great honor meeting the man that has brought some of the most lethal and hard to find criminals in Wizarding Britain-”

“Get to the point. I have things to take care of.” She didn’t, but after not even a minute in the man’s precentce, she didn’t like him one bit. Too proud and a too big ego she guessed.

 “Well, alright then. Mr. Phoenix, you talents, your skills, they would be greatly appreciated by the auror corps, and I am here to offer you a job. We are willing to offer you-”

“No. I am not interested.” She turned to leave, only to find her way blocked once more by the man.

“Mr. Phoenix, surely you would get a lot of privileges if you were to pledge yourself to the auror corps, decent pay, I know for a fact that the reporters of the _Daily Prophet_ are dying to get an interview with you-”

Again she interrupted him, “No. I work for no one, and I am neither doing this for the money nor for fame. In fact, I wouldn’t want the fame in the slightest. I’ve seen what that does to people and I find it rather unattractive to have a microphone shoved in my face and an annoying reporter to write down what I ‘supposedly’ would have said. My answer is no, and it will stay no. Now would you be so kind to move out of my way so I can go home?” She said with such a deadpanned voice she could hear Kingsley in the background trying to choke back laughter.

The man was fuming at her badland dismissal.

“But Mr. Phoenix,-”

“Out of my way. Now.”

Hearing the growl in her voice, the man made the right decision and moved to the side. Turning around she said, “Have a nice night Mr. Shacklebolt. I am looking forward to seeing you again, even if it won’t be for a while.”

“Likewise.”

Without another word nor a single noise she moved out, heading back to the apparition point and made her way through the two kilometers of woods that lay around Potter Manor.

```````````````````````````````````

Finally inside, she made quick due of taking off her armor, storing it in its rightful place in her trunk. Next she took a shower in to warm up a bit. It was very cold outside and while there hadn’t been a lot of snow, it was certainly cold enough for it to fall down sooner rather than later.

After a long shower she looked at the clock. It read 5:30 AM. Damn. Did she fall asleep in the shower?

 _‘Must have.’_ It had been only 4:50 AM when she got home.

Her stomach made to point out at that moment she hadn’t had anything to eat for at least 10 hours, rumbling pretty harshly. She quickly made her way to the kitchen for a quick snack. Opening the fridge she pulled out the milk and made herself some oatmeal.

She never noticed the front of the newspaper stating _‘Who is the Black Phoenix?’._ Unaware of her new fame, she went to bed not even thinking about the fact that her parents could come home any day now with the vacation running to an end.

She was simply too tired to care.


	9. Concerns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys,  
> sorry for the long wait. I had to work a LOT the last few weeks, on top of my dad moving and my grandmother getting ill. I didn't have the time to write a whole lot, but now here it is! The long awaited next chapter.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it, and don't be afraid to leave comments!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rrights belong to J. K.Rowling.

The next day Jay got up around midday. The window still didn’t have the curtains closed from where she entered it the night before. Outside the sun was out and there was still no snow.

Perfect for her morning run. Or midday run. ‘ _Whatever.’_

She quickly got dressed in a pair of black sweatpants and a dark blue t-shirt along with a training jacket. She put her leather boots on and put her hair up in her trademark ponytail and grabbed her ipod with earbuds before making her way downstairs to grab a quick bite before leaving the house through the backdoor.

It was very cold outside and Jennifer couldn’t help but shiver a bit before she warmed herself up by running. With Hailstorm and Skillet blasting through her earbuds, she finished running an hour later. Completely out of breath, she entered the kitchen and opened the fridge to get herself some milk. She warmed it up in a small pan while singing loudly to the tone of the music, sometimes drumming her fingers with the rhythm of the drums.

She never noticed the people entering the room right as she turned her back to the door in order to stir the milk a little and testing if it was warm enough.

````````````````````````````````

James POV.

Entering their home always felt right to James’ opinion, even if there was something missing now. Jennifer wasn’t waiting for them this time, much  to his and Lily’s disappointment. Yes they fought a bit before they left, but she couldn’t still be mad about that right? It wasn’t like it was the first time they weren’t there on Christmas. Now that he thought about it, there hadn’t been a Christmas in a long time they spent it together.

“Hey, where is Jennifer? Is she hiding somewhere?” Charlie asked, confused as to why his sister wasn’t there to greet him like always when they came back from a trip.

“Yeah, where is our little goddaughter?” Sirius asked, looking around like he expected her to pop up from the bushes with a platter of self-made cookies for them. “She can’t still be mad at us, right?”

“I don’t know… Lily, you did write the day and time of our return on the note we left, right?” He asked looking a little unsettled at his wife. “I mean, she is always here when we… why isn’t she here? You recon something happened to her?”

“Let’s go inside and look for her, maybe she got caught up in her dancing practice or something again and forgot the time. You know how she is with her music.” Remus suggested to the now slightly nervous and worried parents, looking uneasy himself. Sure, he never really payed her that much attention beside the initial greeting when they returned and perhaps a few polite conversations, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about her! They simply didn’t have a lot in common and he always felt like he was being judged when he spoke with her, even if she never hinted that she was doing so.

“Right, let’s go inside. She’ll probably be in the dancing room.”

She wasn’t.

“Okay, so maybe the kitchen?” James looked around the room to see if anyone had a better idea then his.

Sirius appeared to have his back, and commented, “She does love baking. Maybe she is making us her gingerbread men, like always when we come home after Christmas…” He looked even more uncertain this time.

Sighing, they left for the kitchens, not really believing that they would find her there.

When they entered the kitchen they found her indeed, but it was a sight they were not prepared for. She was wearing training clothes, her beautiful long hair in a messy ponytail and her feet in a pair of run-down and manly looking leather boots. She was completely in black and dark blue, looking very much at ease as she stirred a pan full of what seemed to be milk.

She was singing loudly to a horrible song they never imagined her listening to.

“ _I can be the B!tch, I can play the whore, Or your fairytale princess who could ask for more. At touch of wicked, a pinch of risk-ay, Good girl gone bad, my poison is your remedy.” ~_

They looked in utter shock at the girl before them. There was no way that was Jennifer, right?

That thought was lost when the girl turned around and they were able to see her make-up less face. James couldn’t help but notice that she looked totally at ease in her messy get-up.

A sound that couldn’t be identified as anything besides a squeak  come from his mouth. Lily looked horrified at her daughter, making a face as if she’d just killed someone.

Her eyes met his and the disbelieving look he was given by his own daughter was heartbreaking to him. It was like she didn’t believe that they were home.

“Oh, hey, good morning.” She said, snapping everyone simultaneously out of whatever funk they were trapped in.

Lily was the first to say something. “Jennifer, what on earth are you doing?!”

“Making myself a mug of oatmeal?” The young girl raised a single eyebrow at the disappointed and angered tone Lily used.  “If you want some, there is more milk in the fridge and the oatmeal is in the cupboard.” She turned around to pour her warm milk in the mug filled with dry oatmeal, smiling at the delicious  sent it gave off.

“Why are you dressed like that? And what are you wearing?” Sirius asked, looking at his goddaughter like he’d never seen her before.

“Uhm, my No-One’s-Home-So-Whatever-Clothes? And I’m wearing them because I didn’t know you would be coming home today? I literally just came back from a small run and decided I was hungry.” She turned back to face them, her mug now smugly in her cold hands with a spoon sticking out of it.

James had no words for this, and it seemed like he wasn’t the only one.

His little girl sighed and followed it by forming a frown upon her face.

“Did you really think that I play dress-up if no one is around to see it?” Another sigh. “You know what? I’m going to my room.” She walked out of the room and turned around right at the doorway, like she suddenly remembered her manners, and with a cold voice, void of any emotions said; “Oh, right. Glad you’re all back I suppose. Have a nice Christmas? I know I had the best one I’ve had in years. Bummer you weren’t there like.” She smoothly walked out of the room, down the hallway and up the stairs, completely ignoring his wife who was yelling at her to immediately come back into the kitchen to apologize to them.

She wasn’t seen again that day.

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Time skip - Several hours later

Several hours ago, the Potters were confronted with the fact that their little girl might not be all they thought her to be. The thought that the young girl was wearing dark clothes and listening to music that was completely unlike what they had taught her to like piled on top of her attitude towards them –rude and angered mostly- were completely unexpected for them, and they had no idea how to deal with it. Currently the elder Potters along with Sirius and Remus were sitting at the dining table, telling a disgruntled looking Dumbledore and McGonagall about their concerns regarding the girl.

“I’m telling you Albus, there is something not right with her! Never before has she acted this way.” A disturbed James exclaimed looking rather lost on how to deal with what he’d been presented with.

“And those clothes! Honestly, if she were older I imagen that’s what they would look like on a day off! Not to mention that _Barbaric_ noise she was listening to and singing along with! I am simply lost on how this happened… She has always been such a nice and obedient girl. I can’t honestly imagen what brought this on!” Lily continued. Once she finished her rant, she looked down at her perfectly manicured nails before looking out the window, where Charlie was having a blast playing with his new toys he got for Christmas. With a pang they realized they didn’t buy Jennifer any presents.

“Albus, we are really concerned… I mean, you don’t think she’s going dark… right?”

“Let’s not make any hasty conclusions.” Albus said, now looking directly at the two parents. “While this is a great concern, you needn’t judge her so soon. Perhaps it is simply a show of teenage rebellion. She is reaching that age right about now.” He lectured, trying to calm his former students before they caused another falling hole with their daughter.

Even though he was trying to calm his former students, he couldn’t help but be concerned as well. It was of great import that the family stuck together, therefore they could not afford things like this to happen too often. Once the war started again –and yes, they were quite certain it would at some point- they would become _the_ propaganda family, showing the rest of the Wizarding world what they were fighting for. They would inspire hope into the people and hopefully gain a lot of firepower because of it.

But in order for that to happen, they had to stick together.

And the concern about the young girl going dark was a  rightful concern as well. To have one of the Potters join the Death Eaters would be disastrous. No, it was better to rip that out straight from the roots.

“While there is very little to be worried about now, it might be in the future. Therefore I am asking your permission to follow your daughter and execute checks on her reading material and her personal belongings at randomly chosen moments for the duration of the school year.” Albus looked at Lily and James who both looked like they were thinking really hard about the pros and cons of the deal. “If there is anything to worry about, we will know in time to do something about it.”

Both Lily and James looked at each other for a moment, before reaching a decision. Lily voiced their choice. “All right. It seems like this is the best thing to do in this situation. There will however be limitations to this privilege that we will give you.”

“Obviously. I would be worried if there weren’t. And, perhaps it would also be good to have at least two of you at Hogwarts for now. I had been looking into hiring two Auror’s to help with the upper year classes for some time now. Part-time of course. And also I have been looking for an assistant charms teacher, mostly for after school tutoring.”

The idea struck, and Lily readily accepted the position offered to her, while both Remus and James would look into getting the position at Hogwarts for part-time.

With that, the adults began thinking up ways to check her actions while still staying within certain boundaries without her being able to notice they were doing it in the first place.

They were however not aware of the fact that a certain 11-years-old was listening in on their conversation.

“So, that is how they want to play it eh? Well boys and girls, I can give just as bad as you. Prepare to be trolled and pranked into the next century.” She gave an evil smirk that if it was seen anywhere, the smart would run and hide.

She got up and walked a bit around her study, looking for a certain book she had found ages ago in Hogwarts. It was a Japanese book that had no decoration on it, in fact it looked like a thick hand-written book consisting of a huge amount of separate notes all bound together to make a single book. Which was essentially what it was. A book made by students and forgotten about long ago.

Her smirk widened as she looked at the pages.

A book named ‘ _Humiliation is the greatest teacher’_

It most definitely is. Especially when keeping in mind that the Japanese are well known for their vicious pranks.

She honestly couldn’t wait until school started again.


	10. Why Did I Ever Bother...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

The time after returning to Hogwarts was hard on the Potter family. Charlie was ecstatic that both his mum, dad and one of his godfathers were coming to school as assistant teachers, even if only for the remaining part of the school year. Jennifer was disappointed. She was disappointed and also angered that they would accuse her of being a dark witch for something as stupid as not being good enough for them. Not being their perfect little girl, but instead an actual person.

She sighed, thinking once more about what they had been doing since they came to Hogwarts. Going through her stuff –of course, not finding anything- following her at night only to discover that she made late-night library visits, talking to –more like interrogating- her few friends, and just generally being annoying.

She got them back for it though. Several well-executed pranks that left them annoyed beyond words or red in the face from embarrassment.

Even with the pranks keeping them busy she couldn’t get a moments rest, and after two weeks she was more than tired of it. In frustration she had gone outside together with Neville, hoping to get a moment of peace together with her best friend. They’d been outside for a while now, and it seemed that for once, she was left to be.

That was until the Malfoy brat decided to show up together with the two gorillas he called friends.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Potter and the Longbottom squib. Having fun sitting in the dirt?”

Jennifer looked up to see Malfoy standing just a bit away from them, wearing a smirk on his face while his goons laughed at the poorly made jab at Neville.

“Malfoy, I’m giving you the opportunity to leave right now. If you decide to stick around, you might find out what I can do to someone if I’m in a foul mood.” Jay looked at the boys with a blank expression, just waiting for either them leaving or actually give her a valid reason (at least in her mind) to punch the daylights out of them.

“Yeah, right. And what would you do exactly? Talk our ears off about what type of dress you want to wear during your next gala? Oh, wait, you’d do that regardless.” This prompted the boy into another fit of laughter.

Neville was looking uncertainly at Jay, not knowing what her deal was as of late. She’d been more and more aggressive since returning from Christmas break and he didn’t doubt the fact that she could probably kick all their asses. Perhaps not at once, but definitely one on one.

“Is that truly what you think?” Her tone now had a dangerous tone to it. The boys stopped laughing. “Do you really think that I wouldn’t pick certain things up from watching Charlie train? That I can’t defend myself?” She gave them a smile with way to many teeth. The boys now looked nervous. Good, they should be. “I have no doubt that I can beat the three of you at once without even taking out my wand, boys. No offence, but you wouldn’t be much of a challenge to me.”

Malfoy didn’t seem to know how t react to this, so he settled for turning red and started to yell at her. “Who exactly do you think you are? I bet you can’t even take on a single one of us! You’re just a stupid little whore!”

That did it, and Jay was on her feet within half a second. She moved towards them quickly and punched the fat one –was it Crabbe or Goyle?- in his stomach, who then dropped to the ground. Malfoy and the other boy had taken out their wands in the meantime, and were aiming at her. Before they were able to cast any spells at her she already jumped at the other boy and wrapped her thighs around his neck. Next she lt herself fall backwards, throwing the boy on his back while she elegantly landed on her hands and flipped herself back on her feet. She turned towards Malfoy, who seemed both startled and scared at her sudden attack.

By the time she was on him he finally managed to cast a spell at her, which she expertly dodged. She then kicked his feet out form him and landed him on his back. Quickly she grabbed his wand arm and disarmed him before flipping him over and pinning his arm to his back.

“I’m sorry. You were saying?”

“Get off of me Potter! Just wait until my father hears about this!” He yelled angrily while trying to throw Jay off his back (and failing).

“You mean how Jennifer Potter managed to not only disarm you but also knock out your two bodyguards and pin you to the ground? Or the part where there were three of you and one of me? I bet he’ll be very proud of you.”

Malfoy now had a pensive look on his face, followed by dawning realization that what she said was true to the bone. She let go of him.

“Crabbe, Goyle let’s go.” With a sneer on his face the boy left with his two side-kicks miserably tailing after him.

“You just did that.” Nevillle looked at her with a awe-struck face, “You actually just did that. What’s ever crazier is that you’ll totally get away with it too!”

“Yeah. The brat’s been a total annoyance so far. Besides I haven’t had a nice fight in way too long. My hands were just itching to hit something. Preferably someone.”

With that she turned back to what she was doing. Neville obviously wanted to ask her some questions, but decided against it. Fat chance she wouldn’t answer them anyways.

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Two days late James found himself looking for his little girl for nearly an hour and a half before he even got a hit at where she might be from the Weasley twins, whom Jennifer had become more and more friendly with.

When he finally found her she didn’t seem to notice him getting closer. What surprised him was when he called out to her she completely ignored him as if she hadn’t heard him. When he got closer he saw what she was doing.

There was a large notepad on her knees and several pieces of charcoal laying on a piece of cloth. What surprised him was the drawing she was making. It was simply amazing. She’d drawn about two-thirds of the mighty castle they were now both facing. It was as if someone had taken a picture of Hogwarts and had simply wiped-out a part of it. Her hand was rapidly moving, applying small lines here and there, what for James couldn’t see until she applied the next set of lines and brought that part of the drawing more together. Amazed, James couldn’t find it in himself to disturb her, and simply watched as she drew the tiniest details on the paper. Aside from the occasional look up, she had no eyes for anything but the piece of art she was creating.

She was truly marvelous at what she did. At everything she did, he came to conclude after a while of having her in his class. He could see how she not only had a natural affinity for the spells and like taught in his class. He and lily had been talking about it just the other day. It was as if someone had switched Charlie’s and Jennifer’s results around. They’d expected that he’d do a lot better as his sister, yet instead he was an average student at best. Jennifer apparently excelled at all classes.

It brought along some questions. Surely, if Jennifer was able to do it, why not Charlie?

He was really proud of her though. Even if the drama she’d caused during Christmas had caused Lily to be terribly upset.

Since they had taken to… well.. _spying_ on her, they’d found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. She was just a normal girl. She made the right choice in friends –the Longbottom boy and the Weasley twins- and was overall respectful to teachers and students alike.

“You know, if you have something you want to talk about, you should come and stand where I can actually see you. It might help.”

James nearly fell on his ass after being startled so bad by her. Had she known he was standing there the whole time? And hadn’t said a word?

“I was just walking around, and uh… came to see what you were doing. That’s an amazing drawing by the way!” James tried to cover up his shock and embarrassment at being caught.

“Yeah, I kind of figured since you’ve been standing there now for nearly half an hour.” She turned to face him. “But I’d rather not change the subject of that you were lying about why you’re here.”

“It, It wasn’t a lie-”

“Dad, please. Do you really think I wouldn’t notice the way you’ve been following me around? That I wouldn’t notice that my stuff in my trunk moves around every other day?”

He was now openly gaping at her. She continued, “If there is anything you think I did, I didn’t do it.” She got up and grabbed her stuff. “And if you were wondering, yes, I’m still angry about Christmas.” She left for the castle, leaving a flabbergasted James behind.

With her back straight and head held high, Jay walked into the castle for dinner about an hour after leaving James behind, wondering how her dad would react to having his entire furniture glued to the ceiling. For the second time this week.


	11. A Fiery Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything.  
> All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

After a long school day, Jay was finally able to call it a night. Exams were finally over, and she could rest for now. Exhausted, she collapsed on her bed. She had been stepping up her training a bit after the fight with her father. It was Friday, and her last test of the year had just ended. For the last week all she'd thought about were the exams, and in an effort to break all records for each class, she had been studying continuously for the last two weeks. Even if she was 100% sure that she would make it happen, there was that stupid little voice in her head that said that she could do better.  
She would be happy to get a full night’s worth of sleep that night, if it weren’t for her brother.  
The idiot had somewhere in the year snuck into a locked room on the third floor.  
You know, the floor no one was supposed to go to unless they wanted to die painfully?  
And what was worse, they planned to go back there tonight. Some nonsense about a stone and professor Snape wanting to steal it. So, of course, with her being the responsible one she had to tag along with them to make sure that Charlie, Weasley and Granger didn’t get totally obliterated, she had no choice but to go.  
At midnight she woke up, knowing that Granger had just left the dormitories. She quickly got up and casted a disillusion spell on herself, along with a silencing charm on her feet. Making sure not to close the door to loudly, she moved down to the common room to be greeted by the sight of her brother and two best friends, fully clothed, just like her.  
“We got everything?” Charlie asked in a whisper. After receiving two confirming nods, he moved to the exit of the Gryffindor common rooms. “Let’s go then.” The three eleven-year-olds all crouched down under an invisibility cloak, undoubtedly the one that James Potter once owned. What they didn’t know was that Jay could see straight through it, by using a special spell she’d found years ago, back when she was still busy reading the Potter library.  
She silently followed them, and even if they were invisible, they were making so much noise that it was a wonder they hadn’t been caught yet. They finally arrived at the door that lead to the Cerberus that had nearly cost the three their lives the last time they entered the room.  
What surprised her, was the fact that said Cerberus was currently asleep, a harp playing in the distance. The three looked at each other and made a b-line for the trapdoor that was now accessible with the huge monster asleep. She moved along with them, quickly eliminating the small head start they had on her. As Charlie opened the hatch, Jay was paying close attention to the Cerberus, after all, how many times was she to come across one again?  
While she was studying the gigantic claws on its feet -The golden trio was busy thinking of a way to get down the hatch- she noticed the music stopped. Almost immediately after, the creature began to wake up. Turning around she knocked Weasley on the back of his head to gain his attention.  
“Ow! ‘Moine why would you… Uh… Guys?” The Cerberus was now fully awake, all three heads turned in their direction.  
The smart thing to do, would possibly be to jump in the hole, unfortunately, the only thing the trio did, was yell their lungs out.  
Sigh.  
With a light banishing charm, she made both Charlie and Granger lose their footing, and they toppled backwards onto the hole. Luckily, Weasley seemed to think it was a good way to go, and jumped in the hole right after the two. Jay jumped in last, but unlike the rest, she was able to shoot a string in the ceiling with her wand, right after jumping down the hole. The three were now laying on some kind of plant, while Jay hung safely on the ceiling.  
For a second she didn’t recognize the plant, before nearly hitting her head in her stupidity for not realizing it was a Devil’s Snare. Simple enough to get out of, if you stayed calm and knew a way to create a bright light.  
While lost in her thoughts, it seemed Granger had reached the same conclusion.  
“That’s great, but how do we get out of it?!” Came Charlie’s panicked voice.  
“Sunlight! Of course! It hates sunlight or bright lights.”  
“Then start a fire or something! I can’t reach my wand anymore!” Came Weasley’s great response. Surely, they could see the stupidity of starting a fire in such a small room.  
“Incendio!” Again, she thought to much of them. Even though it was effective, now Jay had a small issue. In order to get through the flames, she needed her wand, which was also the thing currently keeping her from falling in the flames.  
‘Damn, how do I get out of this one?’ Jay thought to herself. She looked at the ceiling, small flames licking her feet already, and she was running out of time very fast. She quickly climbed all the way to the ceiling, and managed to get herself balanced against the wall, in the small squared hole in the ceiling where the trapdoor was located. Once she was steady -or as steady as she could get with her legs against the wall in front of her and her back against the opposite side- she let go of the spell that kept her connected to the ceiling and immediately casted a stong aguamenti at the flames, in hopes of extinguishing them. It was taking a long time, and it was getting harder to breath by the second.  
She had to stop casting the water at the flames to conduct a bubble-head charm on herself, so that she could breathe in clean air. ‘Damn Granger!’ she thought, with sweat running down her face. The aguamenti spell wasn’t doing enough. While the flames did start to lessen, it was simply taking too long. Who knew in what kind of trouble her brother had run into while she was trapped here? She’d already been in this room for nearly twenty minutes now!  
In a split second she made a decision, and dove into the flames. With her wand she made a small path between herself and the flames, narrowly escaping getting burnt. She landed on the floor, and darted into the hallway she saw slightly to her right. With a deep breath, she sat on the floor for a second, relishing in the cold the floor brought her. It was boastingly hot in that room, her entire face red with heat and her form drenched in sweat.  
Begrudgingly, she moved on to the next room, mourning the feeling of the cold stones already. Stepping into the room, she realized that the trio had already cleared the room, same with the three next. In one room she found both Granger and Weasley. The room had giant pieces of chess in it, and while Granger looked fine, Weasley didn’t seem to be doing too great. He’d probably needed to go to the hospital wing, which it seemed Granger was getting ready to transport him to. Fearing what might have happened to her brother, she moved through the next rooms, until she came to a riddle. She figured it out in a fraction of a second, but sadly the potion that granted her access to the next room, was already gone.  
She looked at the way to the next room. Flames were covering the floor, yet the walls were fireless and the ceiling is high. With another small sigh, she stepped back a bit, and then charged forward. With a leap, she jumped over the flames, and came about half-way through. She then pushed herself off on the walls with her feet, one right, one left, and then she was over the flames. She landed on her hands, and quickly rolled forward to decrease her speed.  
The room in front of her was large and circular, with only a mirror, her brother and – was that professor Quirrell? Neither of the males noticed her, and when Quirrell turned his back on her, she suddenly understood the look of fear her brother wore.  
She was staring straight at a face on the back of her professor’s head, and boy, didn’t the man look familiar. There was the stinging feeling once again. It was almost as if her magic itself was warning her.  
When the man’s eyes met hers, she knew, without a doubt, that Lord Voldemort was in this room.


	12. Regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing.  
> All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.
> 
> xxWARNING!xx Some gore in this chapter.

She was staring straight at Voldemort, but luckily it seemed that her disillusion charm was holding up for now. Either that, or the man had noticed her, but decided not to say anything.  
“I’ll never give you the stone Voldemort! You’ll have to kill me first!” Charlie spoke. It sounded a lot braver as the boy obviously felt, with his pale face and a death grip on his wand.  
“That can be arranged.” The gasping, raspy voice from no other as Lord Voldemort replied.  
Charlie blanched even more, and Jay honestly hadn’t thought it possible to maintain that color without passing out. Yet, the boy sent out a jinx at the Dark Lord.  
Was he – did he really, just throw a jelly-leggs jinx at such an opponent? What was he playing at?! Did her brother want to end up in a coffin?! As predicted, the jinx was simply cast aside by Voldemort, and the (man?) monster sent a spell her brother’s way I retaliation. Her eyes widened at the sight of the spell, recognizing it as a Bombarda Maximus.  
She came in immediate action. Knowing that she wouldn’t make it in time to the other side of the room to shield the both of them, she summened the only moveable item in the room in front of her brother. The mirror. With a huge crash the spell hit the mirror, and the blast still sent Charlie flying into the wall behind him. When his head hit the wall, Jay knew that he wasn’t going to get back up anytime soon.  
“Who dares -?!”  
“I dare.” She stepped fully into the room, shedding her disillusion charm. “What, you thought I was gonna let you kill my brother?”  
“Jennifer Potter… Powerful for your age, yes.” The red eyes went up and down her body, as if inspecting her. “You will be a very powerful witch someday, I can tell. The intelligence you show oh, so casually.” The raspy voice was now almost hissing at her, and she was getting more unnerved by the second. “You could be a worthy opponent one day. Or, an ally.”  
What was he offering her? Did he seriously just imply that she joined him, go against her entire family, and throw away what she’d been working on for years now?  
“And I, have so much to offer you. If you would just be so nice and get me the stone from Potter’s pocket.” The red eyes sharpened on her own, as if there had just been a huge decision made. “I could offer you everything you want… To be whoever you wish to be, and have no limits… With me as you Master, all your dreams could become reality.”  
Jay was a bit speechless. She’d only seen the man during classes, and he’d figured out what she wanted, while her parents were still grasping straws as to what happened between them. Why she resisted them so much. It would be easy to give the man the stone, and then she could have whatever life she chose to have.  
Luckily for the rest of the world, she was neither stupid, nor ignorant enough to believe the man. Like he would ever let her have that. And even if he would, she did prefer to do things the hard way sometimes. She raised her hand, wand tightly clutched in it.  
“Sorry pal, not happening.” Without even finishing her sentence a sickly green looking spell came her way, and she ducked to the left. Twisting around, she retaliated by throwing her own spells at him. They dueled for a bit, and Jay was losing ground fast. She needed to think, what would he not be able to dodge, nor block?  
She blocked another spell, one that could have easily decapitated her, had she now put up a shield fast enough. Immediately after, she had to jump aside once more to avoid getting hit by a vividly purple spell. Only, she wasn’t fast enough. The spell hit her in her wand arm, and when she tried to raise it, a sharp pain shot through her, making her realize she had to switch arms.  
With her left arm, she began to fight back once again, this time with spells that would cause more damage as she’d ever had to use before. Spells to kill, not injure. Spells that aurors used on criminals that had killed one of their own. Spells, that were designed to do as much damage to the body of one’s opponents as it could.  
Jay was thinking rapidly. There had to be something she could do, something to stop this tainted, disgusting magic that was clashing with her own. She could almost taste the corruption of the man’s magic in the air, and it sent chills down her sweat drenched back.  
Corrupt, other word for tainted, infected. A book quote suddenly came to her mind. One from a rather ancient tomb she’d found on one of the very few trips she had been on with her family. ‘When faced with the corruption of the earth, many ancient societies relay on the cleansing of whom, or what, this taint has infected, by burning the taint itself. This is done by summoning gehénnam, also known as hellfyre.’  
Oh god. Hellfyre, that was seriously the only thing she could come up with? The spell was ridiculously hard to cast, and that was without being in the middle of a duel. But honestly, she wasn’t going to come up with anything else now, was she? Besides, it wasn’t as if the fire was going to hurt anything that wasn’t tainted. It was designed especially for things like this, and she wasn’t going to get any other ideas soon enough, she didn’t have a choice.  
With her mind made up, she was mentally preparing to cast the spell. The next opening she got, she utilized to throw an overpowered Bombarda at the man, and to her greatest luck, he tried to block it which gave her a split second extra she needed in order to cast the spell.  
As the man saw what the girl had just done, he could do nothing but look in horror as the flames raced towards him, and started burning him alive. His flesh began melting off and the man could do little more as scream his lungs out.  
The smell of burnt flesh hit Jay’s nose, and she vomited. Watching in complete horror at what she’d done, she could do nothing more as scream together with the man. His skin was melting and his hair was long gone by the time Jay dared to look up once again. The man soon stopped screaming, instead chocked off noises took its place, when eventually it just stopped.  
Jay knew, without a doubt, that she had just killed the man. There was no way that someone, even Voldemort, would survive what she’d just witnessed. She sank to her knees, her good hand covering her mouth, wand still in hand, as she cried. The tears were rolling off her cheeks, and small sobs made their way through the hand on her mouth.  
Eventually, her sight went hazy, before she closed her eyes and passed out, the exhaustion from the battle finally catching up to her, and she knew no more.


	13. Anger and Guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

When consciousness finally returned to her, the first thing she noticed was that she was no longer laying on the cold, stone floor. Beneath her fingers, she felt fabric and her body was placed on a soft surface. Next thing she knew, her nose was assaulted with the strong scent of disinfectant. She felt extremely weak, and when she opened her eyes, she shut them immediately again, bright with light assaulting her sensitive eyes.

After a few seconds, she opened her eyes once more, slowly this time. Looking at the ceiling, she knew her suspicion was right. The hospital wing. Slowly she turned her head around the room, hoping to find someone there to tell her what was going on.

With a pang, she remembered what had happened, and nearly vomited on the floor. She’d killed a man. One that had tried to kill her and Charlie, but still… Oh Merlin! Where was Charlie?! He couldn’t be – be dead, right? She’d saved him before Voldemort did anything too bad to him.

With new energy, the motivation to find out what had happened t her brother, she sat up and got ready to leave the bed. With her legs hanging off the bed, she looked around for her shoes. Or any pair of shoes, really. She quickly came to the conclusion that there were none to be found. ‘ _Okay, then without the shoes.’_ In her pajama’s, she got up from the bed and headed to the large doors that lead to the hallways.

She got about halfway there before she had to lean on a nearby bed. She was very dizzy, and needed a minute to make sure she wasn’t going to fall over. When she leaned on the bed with her right arm, a sharp pain shot up through her entire arm, and she noticed a bandage around her upperarm. That must have been where Voldemort had hit her, she guessed. She hadn’t even felt it during the fight, adrenaline keeping her sedated to the pain. She looked at the bandage, seeing it slowly turning red with her blood.

With a deep breath, she continued her way to the door. When she finally made it to the doors, one of them swung open, hitting her dead in the face.

“Ah!” Okay, that hurt.

“Jennifer?! Oh, dear Merlin, you’re okay!” She recognized that voice, it was her best friend after all.

“Neville?” She looked up from her position on the floor. How had she ended up on the floor? She tasted something metallic on her lips, and reached up to find that her nose was bleeding slightly.

“Oh, no! I’m so sorry Jay! I’ll go get Madam Pomfrey. Wait here.” He took off, running back out the door he’d just entered the room through, with speed she didn’t know he was capable of. She looked at the retreating form of her friend, still slightly dazed. Blinking her ayes a few times, she managed to stop the world from tilting so much, and got back up on her feet. But by the time she finally made it through the door, her friend was back, together with not only Madam Pomfrey, but also her parents, the Headmaster and her Head of House.

“Miss Potter, why honstely! The moment I leave to go to the end of year feast is when you decide to awaken?”

“Oh, my baby is finally awake! Thank Merlin, we’ve all been so worried-”

“Are you allright cub? How are you feeling? Is there something wrong-”

The noise flooded her, and she couldn’t make anything out of it. Everyone was trying to get her attention and they were all speaking through each other. Her eyes darted from one person to the next, unable to focus. Her breathing got more irregular, and at that point Madam Pomfrey luckily made an end to it all.

“Quiet, the lot of you! You are clearly distressing my patient!” They all fell silent, and Madam Pomfrey began leading her back to her bed. There was something that she’d been doing, right? Something important. She looked around, in hopes of remembering what she’d needed to do a minute ago.

When she looked at her dad though, she remembered. She sat up once more, much to Madam Pomfrey’s dismay. James rushed forward, trying to keep his daughter from leaving the bed she was in.

With frantic eyes, she looked at her dad, “Dad, is Charlie all right? I thought he was, but I didn’t see him and –” “He’s fine sweetie, he’s just at the end of year feast. Nothing to worry about. He woke up days ago.” He cut off his daughters near hysterical voice.

“All right, let me near her. I need to check on that arm of hers, before it gets even worse.” With that said, James reluctantly, yet obediently stepped back to let Pomfrey near his daughter. A worried frown appeared on his face when he caught the small line of blood running down her arm. She absently looked at the soaked-through bandage, no expression on her face. When Pomfrey finally let up, she was immediately hogged by the Headmaster.

“Miss Potter, do you remember what happened that night?” The Headmaster was looking straight at her, and she knew she had to lie.

“No, I don’t remember anything besides following Charlie, Granger and Weasley down that hole on the third floor. I kept myself hidden from them, but past the room with the potions, I can’t recall what happened… Headmaster, what did happen?” She turned her eyes to the man, full of innocence and confusion, hoping the man would buy it. It wouldn’t do for her plan to fall apart at the seams right now.

The headmaster shared a look with her parents, obviously deciding whether or not to tell her what their theory was. “You brother went to protect something very important, and came face to face with Lord Voldemort.” A gasp was heard at the name, Madam Pomfrey seemed the only one to be afraid of the name though. “When you arrived at the scene, Voldemort tried to kill you, first by throwing a cutting hex at you, which hit you in the arm,” He pointedly looked at her -now freshly bandaged- arm. “And next he tried to hit you with a blasting spell. Luckily, you brother was able to shield you from the blast by summoning the mirror.” Jay listened with great attention. Oh, if only they knew how _wrong_ they were.

“While you were unconscious, Charlie dueled with Voldemort, but eventually lost to him, getting blast into the wall. When he tried to recover the important item Charlie was protecting, he released a great wave of accidental magic, setting him ablaze, and eventually the man died due to this.” Dumbledore looked at the girl, who was getting more and more stressed as the story continued. He noticed a few tears making their way out of her eyes when he told her what happened to the man. “Or so Charlie told us he did.”

Wait, Charlie lied? Did he really take credit for something she did?

“Your brother showed great bravery that night, Miss Potter, and perhaps it would do you well to stay away next time something like this happens. He can’t be distracted, should this happen again.” Dumbledore gave her a strong look, as if trying to make a point.

“Of course, Headmaster. I don’t even know what I was thinking, following him that night!” She said in a whimpering voice, now fully open crying. Her mother immediately rushed forward, trying to calm her child. Outward, it seemed that she was terrified and distressed, while inwardly, she was bristalling with anger. How dare he take credit for something she did?! Even if it was better for her plans, it was such an insult to her abilities! The only thing her brother did was nearly get killed, and then twisting the story so much that it seemed she was the helpless one! How she wished she could tear him a new one… Now, she had to act like her brother saved her life, like he was her hero. She could almost tear her hair out at the mere thought of doing that.

All in all, it was going to be a hard few weeks ahead of her. If she made it through the week, she’d get herself a new pair of boots for not killing the bloody imbeciles she was forced to live with.

Fr now though, she let her mother hold her tight, trying to smooth away fake distress.

````````````````````````````````````````````````````

A few days later, Jennifer and the rest of the Potters were back home. And boy, did she miss her alone time.

There wasn’t a minute they’d leave her alone until now, and Charlie made no point of not boasting about his great victory against the Dark Lord to her, and everyone who would listen. Her cheeks were hurting because of the ridicules amount of time she had to put on a fake smile. It was getting very old, very fast.

On top of the interruption during her daytime schedule, her nights were filled with nightmares. Nightmares of burning flesh, and awful screams. More than once a night, she’d wake up, completely drenched in sweat and her breathing heavy. It was getting less though. She’d read more than a few books on psychology, and knew a few ways to help herself. Playing piano seemed to help, and while it took her a bit longer to get her full night’s sleep, her life was slowly getting back to normal.

Which also meant that her parents would be leaving her alone at home, very soon. And by very soon, she meant in five days. They’ll be gone for a month and a half, just over six weeks. Which gave her six weeks of freedom. Already, she’d been planning her own vacation. There wasn’t much more she could do alone at home that she hadn’t done yet. That day on the third floor, it showed her just how right she was with training herself, and how unprepared she was. She’d fought a version of Voldemort that had almost no power compared to his old form. If she were to fight him right now, she’d lose. Badly. She needed more info, more knowledge, more… everything. And she wasn’t going to find it here… The logical option would be to leave. To travel and explore more areas of magic.

She looked at the locked door of her room, listening if there was anyone out and about. When she was certain no-one would come to interrupt her, she opened her trunk and pulled out a map of Europe. There were nine dots on the map, and detailed descriptions of the areas to visit.

Each dot on the map indicated a magical city that she wanted to visit, to see the magics of that specific country. Everywhere magic was different, different spells, different clothes, different rules. While she did have lots of books from different countries, there was always some information lacking, a few pointers that she didn’t get with references to other books she didn’t have.

Most of these books could be ordered by owl, but that was always very expensive, and there were always books that she couldn’t just order. The only solution was to go to the area and get the books herself. Her trip _should_ last six weeks as well, and she will be back on time for her families return. With just five days left, there wasn’t a lot left for her to do. Luckily, she’d already received the train ticket to get to the rest of Europe. She hadn’t planned anything except for how to get to her first destination, which was in the Netherlands. From there, she’d figure it out as she went, moving from place to place without knowing how she’d actually do it.

But that was fine, there were so many things to see, she didn’t know how long she’d be staying at one of her destinations. She may be only eleven, but that wouldn’t be such an issue. She could travel with public transport. As long as she didn’t use any magic outside of the big magical cities, there wouldn’t be anyone that’d be able to tell she’d been gone to begin with. Her money had already been resupplied by her parents, and there was no way she could ever use that much money in just _six weeks_.

He had made a list of things she needed, and had pulled out her old duffle bag out of her trunk. She’d be leaving her trunk at home. The only bags she was going to bring were the duffle bag and a backpack. Both were featherlight and bottomless, leaving her with more than enough space to put her clothes and other necessaries in.

All that was left to do was wait for her family to leave once more, and she’d be gone.

With a smile no her face, she fell backwards on the bed, thinking about the freedom that awaited her, just one step away, and few days out of reach.

_ End of book 1 _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, hope you enjoyed book 1 from my series <3\. Don't worry, this isn't the end. Next book will be Jennifer's adventures in the summer, and year 2 at Hogwarts.
> 
> Peace! :D


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